NBA Finals 2023: 3 reasons why Miami Heat lost to Denver Nuggets in Game 1

Miami Heat kicked off their NBA final run by losing 104-93 to the Denver Nuggets at the latter’s backyard at Ball Arena to go down 1-0 in the seven-game series on Friday. Nuggets’ star Nikola Jokic recorded his ninth triple-double of the post-season as he notched 27 points along with 14 assists and 10 rebounds to spearhead his team’s victory in his first-ever NBA final appearance.

The Heat have come into the summit series on the back of an emphatic 4-3 series win against the Boston Celtics. Led by the enigmatic Jimmy Buttler, who was crowned the Eastern Conference Finals (ECF) Most Valuable Player (MVP), the Heat overturned a 3-0 deficit to send the Celtics crashing out of the tournament. Here are the three reasons explaining why Miami Heat lost the opening game of the finale to the Nuggets.

The Heat stormed a comeback with an 11-0 score in the opening phase of the fourth quarter. However, they were unable to shoot accurately for a major portion of the first game. Power forward Celeb Martin’s stats read 1 for 7 (shots) whereas Max Strus couldn’t secure even a single three pointer from the nine attempts that he made.

“I didn’t even look at the box score yet, but like I said, I think the disposition, the efforts were more appropriate in the second half,” Miami coach Erik Spoestra mentioned after the game. Miami broke several unwanted records in this match. They tied the least free throws ever made in a playoff game. They took the fewest attempts from the line in a playoff match. Butler admitted after the game that everyone including him needed to attack the rim much more.

Jokic and Jamal Murray have been in a tremendous run of form for the Nuggets, powering them to help sweep the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals earlier. Murray has been peaking at just about the right time, playing the perfect foil to Jokic, who has been impactful throughout the season and narrowly missed out on securing his third straight season MVP award to Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embid.

 

On Firday, Jokic and Murray slammed 27 and 26 points each with Murray even playing the entire 44 minutes. Murray bagged 10 assists whereas Jokic became only the second player in last 25 years, after LeBron James, to get 10 assists in an NBA final game by halftime. The fearsome, in-form duo of Jokic and Murray was simply too much to handle for the eighth-seed Miami.

However, perhaps the most instrumental reason behind the Heats’ crushing loss was Butler’s inability to show up on a night when his team needed him the most. Firstly, Butler recorded his lowest-scoring game of this post-season, bagging only 13 points in the match. He shot six off 14 attempts from the field and appeared to be a bit too passive and cautionary at times. Butler could have been more aggressive with respect to targeting the rim, as he has acknowledged already.

 

However, his attempts at bringing his teammates into the game in a greater capacity perhaps hurt Miami’s prospects. “I'm always going to pass the ball to my teammates. That's how we have been playing all year long. That's not going to change now that we are in the Finals,’ Butler said after the game. His balancing of that approach along with Miami’s needs of him taking the lead role in the coming six games could very well determine whether the 33-year-old bags his first NBA ring or not.