Heat defeat Nuggets in Game 2 of NBA Finals: What worked for Miami in the win

DENVER — The Miami Heat have already taken down a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NBA playoffs, and they’re on the board toward doing it again. The eighth-seeded Heat evened the NBA Finals on Sunday by knocking off the Denver Nuggets in Game 2, 111-108. Help came from all corners to beat the Nuggets on a night when their superstar, Nikola Jokić, went for 41 points in the loss.

Gabe Vincent — an undrafted player out of college, a former G Leaguer and a star when he plays for the Nigerian national team — led the Heat with 23 points. Jimmy Butler took most of the game to get going, but scored eight of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Bam Adebayo registered 21 points, including two free throws that put the Heat up by five with 48 seconds left, and Duncan Robinson poured in all 10 of his points in the final frame.

It was just barely enough. Jamal Murray had a good look at a stepback 3 just before the final buzzer that banged off the rim. The Nuggets, who led by as many as 15 in the game, were ahead 83-75 when the fourth quarter began.

“Our guys, regardless of how the head coach feels, during the fourth quarter, our guys love to compete,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They love to put themselves out there in those moments of truth. Fortunately, we were able to make a lot of big defensive plays down the stretch, and then we got a lot of contributions, which you’re going to need against a team like this.”

Game 3 is at 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday in Miami. This is the first time that Denver, the No. 1 seed in the West, has gone into a third game tied. The Nuggets had won the first two games of every series until this point.

The Heat, who opened the playoffs by beating No. 1 Milwaukee in five games, are just the second No. 8 seed ever to win a finals game, and the first to tie a series. The 1999 Knicks were down 2-0 when they beat the Spurs in Game 3 of those finals.

Jokić, following his triple double from Game 1, was 16-of-28 from the field and added 11 rebounds, but he was limited to just four assists and five turnovers. To the untrained eye, it might appear the Heat attempted to turn him into a scorer.

Murray finished with 18 points and 10 assists on 7-of-15 shooting, and Aaron Gordon added 12 points for the Nuggets, who sent Miami to the line 22 times (compared with two foul shots in Game 1) and coughed up 14 turnovers.

“Let’s talk about effort. This is NBA Finals, we are talking about effort; that’s a huge concern of mine,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We had guys out there that were just — whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off, this is not the preseason, this is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals. That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing.

“I asked the team, I asked them, ‘You guys tell me why (we) lost,’ and they knew the answer. Miami came in here and outworked us, and we (played) by far our least disciplined game of these 16 or 17 playoff games, whatever it is now. So many breakdowns.”

Spoelstra changed his lineup for Game 2, going back to Kevin Love as his starting power forward over Caleb Martin. The move worked.

Love, who has several inches on Martin, gave the Heat a much better chance against the Nuggets’ gifted bigs, including Gordon. Love, playing in his fourth NBA Finals and first since 2018 in Cleveland, added six points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Max Strus shook off his 0-for-10 performance from Game 1 to score 14 for Miami, with four 3s in the first quarter.

Adebayo has been the Heat’s best player through two games. He scored 26 points on 25 shots in Game 1, and in Game 2, added nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

“Bam, we just can’t say enough of how difficult his responsibilities are in this series,” Spoelstra said. “To take arguably the toughest cover in the league for all the myriad of reasons that I don’t need to get into, and then he has to shoulder a big offensive role for us, as well. So it’s not like he can just stand and rest on the offensive side, and yes, he has to play 40-plus minutes, as well.”

Butler was 7-of-19 from the field and is 13-of-33 shooting through two games. He led the Heat with nine assists and has played the role of facilitator. His missed 3 with 14.6 seconds to go gave the Nuggets one last chance to tie, and it was Butler who put a hand in Murray’s face as he let it fly.

“I think you guys have seen me hit that shot enough,” Murray said. “It was a good look, just didn’t go down.”

Butler had the same view, but things were looking a lot brighter for him afterward.

“I think he got off a decently good look,” Butler said. “Kind of like a high pick-and-roll isolation, and I just contested it. Pretty glad that he missed it to give us a 1-1 series tie going back to Miami.”

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(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)