Nuggets have a 0-4 record in the playoffs when Jokic scores 40+ points

[Heat_chips]

If KCP hadn’t made two bone-headed fouls on three point shots, no-one would be talking about Spolstra’s genius today. .

And if Cody Zeller wasn't a -14 in 8 minutes last night and replaced him with someone else the Heat blow them out. And if the Heat shot atr their normal rate in game one where they had a whopping 36 wide open looks according to nba analytics, the Heat are up 2-0 in the series.

[Heat_chips]

This.

Also, the Nuggets now have their turn to adjust. If they see something in Miami’s scheme that they think caused them to struggle, they wont just bang their head against the wall. Theyll look to come up with new answers.

Denver is 0-4 when hes scores 40 and theyve played 4 series so far. That means basically every series included a high scoring Jokic loss.

And yet here they are with a 13-4 record. Does OP think this is the first time a team thought of this idea? Clearly it’s a lot easier said than done.

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the chicken mcnuggets record is heavily inflated because they played nobody. they played a suns team that plays ZERO defense and had no cohesiveness whatsoever. then they played 2 playin teams, they played a timberwolves team that stinks on defense and an extremely overrated lakers team with a 40 year old lebron and a broken down passive AD that looked nothing like he did in the bubble.

And none of those 3 teams are good 3 point shooting teams !!!

the nuggets cruised to the easiest finals path anyone can remember,, but as soon as they face a very good defense like miami they are limited to just 106 points per game at home with a huge rest advantage. The bucks and celtics would wipe the floor on the nuggets in 6 or less. The east plays defense

[ILLsmak]

They shud just let him get 50. The nugs I mean. He’s got it. I understand as a passing player, too, that it’s weird cuz u are aggressive and at some point u expect the defense to give u lanes to pass. But nothing is stopping dude from getting 50.

That’s the logical solution. Can’t win scoring 40? Get 50!

-Smak

[Heat_chips]

They shud just let him get 50. The nugs I mean. He’s got it. I understand as a passing player, too, that it’s weird cuz u are aggressive and at some point u expect the defense to give u lanes to pass. But nothing is stopping dude from getting 50.

That’s the logical solution. Can’t win scoring 40? Get 50!

-Smak

nba analytics shows when Bam was guarding Jokic last night, Jokic was 7 for 15 (46%) with 2 turnovers, just one assist, and a Bam block on the low post.

[ImKobe]

OP doesn't understand that correlation does not equal causation.

When Joker's teammates are scoring well, like early in game 1, Joker takes fewer shots. When they are struggling he will try to carry the team by taking more shots.

Denver had an ORTG of 126 in game 2 which is elite. Joker scored 41 with a TS of 65%. That doesn't equate to good defense from the Heat.

The Heat won by shooting 17-35 from 3.

Nah it's because his guys are more open when the defense is overhelping/doubling him all the time so he doesn't have to score himself.
He wants to get others involved first.
Look at the difference in his shot attempts in the first half in G1 vs G2. In G1 he didn't record a FGA (he only had the 2 FTs early in the game) until the last seconds in the 1st Q.
In Game 2 he had 9 FGA just in the 1st Q alone, and it wasn't some cheap 3-4 offensive rebounds off him tapping the ball at the rim to pad his rebounding numbers either.
It was definitely due to how Miami guarded the Nuggets in G2 and it was obvious to anyone watching it.

Does it mean the strategy works every single game? Of course not.
It's definitely something they will need to do more as the series goes on though, as it ruins the flow of the Nuggets' offense and puts more pressure on Jokic to be a consistent high-volume scorer.

This.

Also, the Nuggets now have their turn to adjust. If they see something in Miami’s scheme that they think caused them to struggle, they wont just bang their head against the wall. Theyll look to come up with new answers.

Denver is 0-4 when hes scores 40 and theyve played 4 series so far. That means basically every series included a high scoring Jokic loss.

And yet here they are with a 13-4 record. Does OP think this is the first time a team thought of this idea? Clearly it’s a lot easier said than done.

The Heat may yet pull the upset, nobody knows. Literally the only thing we can be certain of is that OP is deranged and is furiously praying to his personal God that Jokic fails simply because Jokic is white.

What a nut.

No one else plays the zone like the Heat does. It's a matter of having the right coaching & personnel. It takes a lot of discipline and experience to be able to pull this shit off. Heat are just built for doing it, but the Nuggets are obviously smart enough to counter it by putting him in the middle of the zone and generating looks out of it, plus if you can't take care of the ball and you're missing shots offensively they're going to kill most teams in transition as well before the defense can get set, and you have to be able to box out and not get killed on the glass either. There's a lot that goes into it beyond just leaving him in single coverage ofc. Heat did a great job slowing the pace down.

[warriorfan]

Nah it's because his guys are more open when the defense is overhelping/doubling him all the time so he doesn't have to score himself.
He wants to get others involved first.
Look at the difference in his shot attempts in the first half in G1 vs G2. In G1 he didn't record a FGA (he only had the 2 FTs early in the game) until the last seconds in the 1st Q.
In Game 2 he had 9 FGA just in the 1st Q alone, and it wasn't some cheap 3-4 offensive rebounds off him tapping the ball at the rim to pad his rebounding numbers either.
It was definitely due to how Miami guarded the Nuggets in G2 and it was obvious to anyone watching it.

Does it mean the strategy works every single game? Of course not.
It's definitely something they will need to do more as the series goes on though, as it ruins the flow of the Nuggets' offense and puts more pressure on Jokic to be a consistent high-volume scorer.



No one else plays the zone like the Heat does. It's a matter of having the right coaching & personnel. It takes a lot of discipline and experience to be able to pull this shit off. Heat are just built for doing it, but the Nuggets are obviously smart enough to counter it by putting him in the middle of the zone and generating looks out of it, plus if you can't take care of the ball and you're missing shots offensively they're going to kill most teams in transition as well before the defense can get set, and you have to be able to box out and not get killed on the glass either. There's a lot that goes into it beyond just leaving him in single coverage ofc. Heat did a great job slowing the pace down.

Yes. Jokic does the same thing Curry does. They both will almost make a point not to look for shots early in the game in favor of trying to get everyone else involved and in rhythm. Once a few guys get going and are feeling it they will start to assert themselves more in a scoring role. They both know they can pretty much turn it on at any time. They get everyone else fed well then are ready to take over the game down the stretch for the knock out blow.


This is pretty much the opposite of Lebron where he races to 30 points as fast as possible and then lets off the gas at the end of the game after he got his, then gets to shift blame on a role player who he hot potato’s the ball to in the final moments after they havnt even shot the ball very much all game.

[Duffy Pratt]

Here are the heats 3pt % in the playoffs so far,

Bucks - 60, 44, 49, 40, 38
Knicks - 33, 35, 22, 33, 30, 31
Celtics - 52, 34, 54, 25, 39, 47, 50.
Nuggets, 33, 49

They’ve shot over 40% 8 of their 20 games. And they went 6-2 in those. But shooting that well only got them a 3 point win against the Nuggets. For the post season, they are shooting 39%, but the variance has been very wide. If they need 49% to beat the Nuggets by three, it’s highly unlikely they will pull out three more wins. Of course it’s possible, and maybe they will figure out other ways to attack the Nuggets.

That said, it’s not decidedly not ‘normal’ for any team to shoot 45 percent on volume for an entire series, as they did against the Bucks, or 43% as they did against the Celtics. We are very much witnessing a series where a team will live or die by the three. Chances have always been against that (but maybe the Heat’s undrafted players really are as elite shooters as Curry and Thomson and Durant)

[Heat_chips]

Here are the heats 3pt % in the playoffs so far,

Bucks - 60, 44, 49, 40, 38
Knicks - 33, 35, 22, 33, 30, 31
Celtics - 52, 34, 54, 25, 39, 47, 50.
Nuggets, 33, 49

They’ve shot over 40% 8 of their 20 games. And they went 6-2 in those. But shooting that well only got them a 3 point win against the Nuggets. For the post season, they are shooting 39%, but the variance has been very wide. If they need 49% to beat the Nuggets by three, it’s highly unlikely they will pull out three more wins. Of course it’s possible, and maybe they will figure out other ways to attack the Nuggets.

That said, it’s not decidedly not ‘normal’ for any team to shoot 45 percent on volume for an entire series, as they did against the Bucks, or 43% as they did against the Celtics. We are very much witnessing a series where a team will live or die by the three. Chances have always been against that (but maybe the Heat’s undrafted players really are as elite shooters as Curry and Thomson and Durant)

It's so much more than that. Do you see HOW the Heat are creating and moving to create those wide open shots? It's so dynamic that you'd be surprised if they missed !!

Nba analytics had the Heat with 57 wide open looks in game 1 and 2 Combined !! That is 19 more wide open looks than any 2 game stretch in the playoffs as their next highest total was 38 .. The Nuggets defense stinks, the nuggets are not the Bucks and celtics defenses, nowhere near.

I love the Heat's chances and I said after game one I wasnt worried because we had so many wide open shots even in the paint down low !! We never had so many wide open shots against the Bucks and Celtics, eveything was hard to create but against the Nuggets it's so much easier. We didn't make them in game one because we had no legs with the lack of rest after a grueling 7 game series vs Boston.

And this is a list of top 10 shooting nights in the playoffs for all teams:

1. Miami
2. Miami
3. Miami
4. Miami
5. Milwaukee
6. Golden State
7. Miami (last night vs nuggets)
8. Philadelphia
9. Phoenix
10. Miami

[Heat_chips]

That said, it’s not decidedly not ‘normal’ for any team to shoot 45 percent on volume for an entire series, as they did against the Bucks, or 43% as they did against the Celtics. We are very much witnessing a series where a team will live or die by the three. Chances have always been against that (but maybe the Heat’s undrafted players really are as elite shooters as Curry and Thomson and Durant)

Why is it okay for Golden State to win 4 titles and to be crowned a "Dynasty team" by living and dying by the 3 , playing great defense, with very smart disciplined play....

Why Can't the Heat do the same for one title this year ??

You do know that the Heat led ALL NBA teams in 3 point shooting last year, when they were the #1 seed, right ?? And with the same exact roster except for switching PJ Tucker for Kevin Love at PF.

[Heat_chips]

Here are the heats 3pt % in the playoffs so far,

Bucks - 60, 44, 49, 40, 38
Knicks - 33, 35, 22, 33, 30, 31
Celtics - 52, 34, 54, 25, 39, 47, 50.
Nuggets, 33, 49

They’ve shot over 40% 8 of their 20 games. And they went 6-2 in those. But shooting that well only got them a 3 point win against the Nuggets. For the post season, they are shooting 39%, but the variance has been very wide.

What's funny is we would be talking about a Heat REPEAT run this year if they just hit one more shot in the conference finals last year. Because Miami matches up GREAT against an older Golden State team and would've won the title last year.

You'd all be viewing things differently right now if the Heat just made one more shot in the final seconds of game 7 of the ECF last year.

[Heat_chips]

Nah it's because his guys are more open when the defense is overhelping/doubling him all the time so he doesn't have to score himself.
He wants to get others involved first..

That is very true. Jokic is a team player by nature and it kills him to be selfish having to score all the time. We saw last night how he was flustered and frustrated he couldnt play the way he wanted to. His expressions in the 2nd half said it all. And that's what the Heat do best is they take away what you do best.

Rasheed Wallace said: " What makes the Heat so great is they take away what you do best then make you play to their control of the game."

You saw last night how the Heat targeted Murray playing Butler on him for 35 possessions compared to just 4 possessions Butler was on him in game one. They also blitzed Murray with traps. The Heat have been great at stifling and rattling top guards on teams through the playoffs. They made Jaylen Brown look like straight poo all series long. Brown shot way below his 49% season averages. And Jrue Holiday shot 36% or worse in 3 of the 5 games against the Heat in the Bucks series. The Heat are targetting Murray into mistakes and just playing Jokic one on one. And it's genius

Starting Kevin Love to stop Aaron Gordon's cutting and backdoor cuts allowed the Heat to go with Butler against Murray and making Murray's life hell. Murray was poor last night, and REALLY bad on defense, especially in the 4th quarter where the Butler defense took a toll on murray and murray himself couldnt get the energy to play defense. The Heat run in the 4th was a lot to do with Murray's poor defense and lack of awareness

Everyone in the media is thinking about Jokic but the Heat really want to rattle Jamal Murray and get in his head for the whole series, like they did to Jaylen Brown

[Duffy Pratt]

They were third last year. And quite a bit worse this year. And they are shooting about 4% better in the playoffs this year than they did in the regular season last year.

Of course, they can win it this year with phenomenal shooting. But are you really trying to say that their shooters are comparable to Curry, Thompson and Durant? The probability is that their shooting will fall off. That doesn’t make it a certainty. Five games left. If they put up 50+% from three in three of those games, they will probably win. If they put up 40% or less in three of the games, they will probably lose.

[Heat_chips]

They were third last year. And quite a bit worse this year. And they are shooting about 4% better in the playoffs this year than they did in the regular season last year.

Of course, they can win it this year with phenomenal shooting. But are you really trying to say that their shooters are comparable to Curry, Thompson and Durant? The probability is that their shooting will fall off. That doesn’t make it a certainty. Five games left. If they put up 50+% from three in three of those games, they will probably win. If they put up 40% or less in three of the games, they will probably lose.

i hope malone makes adjustments to take his players out of the paint to defend the 3 because we will have wide open lanes to drive for easy buckets and getting the nuggets into foul trouble. their lumbering bigmen wont be able to handle it. we have drivers who can all dribble well to the hoop for quickies and/or drive on a pass/cut - Gabe Vincent was beastly at it vs the celtics, jimmy, Martin, Robinson, bam, herro if he returns, lowry, strus heck the whole team

[MrFonzworth]

nba analytics shows when Bam was guarding Jokic last night, Jokic was 7 for 15 (46%) with 2 turnovers, just one assist, and a Bam block on the low post.

Analytics show you're going to hang yourself if you don't ease up on the amphetamines

[Heat_chips]

Why do the Heat have to shoot 50% from 3 for 3 games ? The Heat beat the Bucks in games 4 and 5 shooting 40% and 37.8%