And it wasn’t until the Nuggets ran into the Heat that surrendering open looks from deep became a problem. During the playoffs and entering the Finals, that number has plummeted to 108.1. The Nuggets might not be a great defensive team, but part of the reason they were able to coast to the Finals is because they had managed to tighten things up on that end of the floor in the playoffs.ĭuring the regular season, Denver surrendered 114.6 points per 100 non-garbage time possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass, a middle-of-the-pack mark. But the part that should have the Nuggets and their fans concerned is that this is a new problem. In Game 2, the Nuggets once again allowed the Heat to get off 30 clean looks from deep. It didn’t take long for Malone to be proved prophetic. And if you think that Max Strus is going to go 0-for-9 again, or Duncan Robinson is going to go 1-for-5 again, you're wrong.' As I told our players this morning, the fact that they got 16 wide-open 3s is problematic. 'I watched that tape, and they were 5-of-16 on wide-open 3s. 'I don't think we played well in Game 1,' he told reporters on Saturday. With Jokic taking 28 shots, the Nuggets offense might not have looked as fluid in Game 2 as it has throughout the rest of the playoffs, but they still shot 52% from the field and still finished the contest with a scorching offensive rating of 124.1, a mark five points higher than the league-best one posted during the regular season by the Sacramento Kings. It was 'over 40,' he told reporters Tuesday, a few hours after showing the clips to his team during a morning film session.įorget all the talk about how Miami evened the Finals by turning Nikola Jokic into a scorer. Malone tallied up the amount of points surrendered on these plays. There was almost nothing good about Denver’s defense in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, but when Nuggets head coach Michael Malone sat down to review film from his team’s 111-108 home loss to Miami, he marked down 17 plays in which the Heat were able to convert his team’s mistakes into points.īotched switches.

Jimmy dean nuggets