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Watch the trickery that Jokic pulls off on the first possession of the game. Bam is fronting him trying to deny this pass. So Nikola at one point just stops asking for the ball and instead sets an impromptu screen. You see that while Murray can fly all the way to the rim, Vincent now must go around 2 big bodies and there’s no stopping this as Jamal lays it in.
The 2 man game for Denver was deadly in game 1, but as tough as that was to stop for Miami, they have another huge issue that doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to solve. Let me explain.
First let me show you the pick and roll clinic that they ran. Jokic sets a great screen up top and Jamal has a lot of room here. You see that Bam is trying to split the difference between the 2, of course watching for the roll by the big man. He can’t commit to a full switch and leave Vincent with Nikola. So Murray realizes that he can just raise up for the shot and knocks it down.
This one was even easier as Adebayo is in a full drop right here. So you see all the space that Jamal has and this is easy money for a great mid range scorer like him.
This time it’s finally Nikola’s time in the pick and roll as he gets the pass down low and look at the beautiful spin into a hook shot- this is unstoppable.
Jokic is just too big for either Adebayo or Zeller and we saw that when he’s able to get it inside it’s either a bucket or a foul, as Nikola ended up shooting 12 free throws which is double than what he usually does.
This is how we get to Miami’s biggest issue that is matchups.
Watch Aaron Gordon looking like Lebron against the smaller guys that the Heat had on him. He bulldozed through Gabe Vincent and Max Struss on multiple possessions.
Then with Caleb Martin on him you see that Denver clears out the left side for him and with shooters all around- and yeah that includes Jokic who’s firing threes at 47.5% this postseason.
So Miami can’t help here and this is easy work again for AG.
Again, same thing just on the opposite side. I understand the fear of the open 3 for the Heat but this is a 100% type of shot so you gotta help out here.
Gordon finished the game with 16 points on 70% from the field and you can see why that percentage was so high.
So with 2 of the 5 positions being a real mismatch that’s a huge problem for Miami.
I expect Hayward Highsmith to get much more playing time in game 2 as a terrific defender who had some great moments as one of the key pieces in that fourth quarter run. And even with his limited offensive assignments he still dropped 18 points.
Speaking of the 4th quarter run- it was the zone that got Miami back from 21 points within single digits in just a few minutes in the fourth, but when Denver found Jokic in the middle, he broke them down either with a flip shot like in this situation, or some incredible interior passing finding guys right under the rim to put the nail in the coffin for this game 1.
If Miami even hopes to make this series interesting then Jimmy Butler must be much more active and it’s inexcusable to pass away good looks like this one right here, or end up with just 2 free throws as a team. 2 free throws they actually set an NBA record for fewest free throw attempts in a playoff game.
One thing that they can hope will go their way is shot making because, look at all of these open looks that Miami couldn’t convert. Max Struss went 0-9 from downtown and he better get back on track for the Heat to even have a chance in the finals.
A convincing win in the opening for Denver and they made it look like they are an unsolvable problem for their opponent. Let’s see if that will be the case moving forward.
Let me know what you think. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.