How Heat can hit back against Nuggets + Adam Silver’s Ja Morant gaffe

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The Nuggets scored a big win for themselves and for Rest versus Rust. Take that, Rust!

Rocky Mountain High Score

Denver dominates in Game 1

The final score of 104-93 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals won’t tell the story of how easy this victory was for Denver. After three quarters, Nikola Jokić had scored or assisted on 69 of the Nuggets’ 84 points. The Heat had 63 points total. The Heat were doubling Jokić to get the ball out of his hands, almost as if they’d never done a scouting session on the way he plays.

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Miami had a strong fourth quarter, playing some zone to disrupt things (or maybe Denver just knew it could coast to a victory), and made this look more competitive. But Jokić finished with 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds for yet another triple-double, making him the second player ever to post a triple-double in their NBA Finals debut (Jason Kidd in 2002 was the first).

Jimmy Butler simply didn’t have it with 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting, but he did have seven assists and seven rebounds. Bam Adebayo led the way for the Heat with 26 points on 13-of-25 shooting, and Max Strus went 0-of-10 with nine of those misses from 3-point range.

Here are my main takeaways from Game 1 with a little point/counterpoint:

Point: Miami generated great looks in the first half and shot 23.5 percent from deep (33.3 percent for the game). Strus should have made at least three or four of those misses. That’s a closer game when he does.
Counterpoint: Denver was even worse from 3 (29.6 percent), and Michael Porter Jr. (a much better shooter than Strus) was 2-of-11.

Point: Aaron Gordon had 12 of his 16 points in the first quarter and feasted against small defenders all game. The Heat can’t check him when he’s on the move.
Counterpoint: If Gordon scoring big every game (especially on the road) is the way Miami loses the NBA Finals, then you live with that. Sell out to stop Jokić (although that didn’t happen in Game 1).

Point: Adebayo needs to be aggressive on offense, and he was the leading scorer. He took everything the Nuggets gave him.
Counterpoint: Denver will also live with Adebayo being “the reason it loses” the NBA Finals. While he took everything the Nuggets gave him, he rarely put pressure on the rim nor did he draw contact to generate fouls.

Point: Butler was not the guy we saw in the previous rounds, and the combination of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Gordon was too much for him defensively.
Counterpoint: We’ve seen Butler adjust to defenses, including his efforts in Games 6 and 7 against Boston. He’ll get his legs under him and get to the free-throw line. Miami only shot two free throws in Game 1.
Counter-counterpoint: It’s hard to draw free throws when you don’t find contact around the rim. Miami played without physicality.

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Check out The Athletic NBA Show’s review of Game 1. We’ll get into some potential Game 2 tweaks later, but first:

The Latest From Shams

Emoni Bates talks expectations and more

As NBA Draft season starts to heat up, with this year’s event less than three weeks away, I sat down with one of the most intriguing players in the field.

Emoni Bates was the top prospect in his high school class not that long ago, and his basketball journey has taken him from Memphis (as a 17-year-old) to Eastern Michigan and now into the NBA Draft a season after he averaged 19.2 points per game and made the All-MAC team for the Eagles.

He talked about that hype heading into college, expectations, what he likes to do aside from basketball and much more in our one-on-one.

Back over to you, Zach.

Looking Ahead to Game 2

How do Heat steal one in Denver?

We won’t Bounce again before 8 p.m. ET Sunday when Game 2 tips off. So here are three adjustments I’d expect Miami to make:

Adjustment 1: See if the zone is actually working 

According to Synergy Sports, the Heat played zone on 19 possessions in Game 1. The Nuggets scored 18 points. The zone minutes in the first half came without Jokić on the floor, and Denver thrived. A good chunk of time when Miami’s zone actually worked came in the fourth quarter, when Denver scored on just one-third of the 12 possessions (with Jokić out there). There could be a lot of randomness in that zone success due to lethargy from Denver in a mostly decided game. But the Heat have to use it more to see if it actually disrupts the Nuggets.

Adjustment 2: Way more Haywood Highsmith 

Highsmith had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting off the bench. He was active around the rim, knocked down jumpers and showed proper aggressiveness. If Strus and Duncan Robinson are going to be useless shooting the ball, then Highsmith has earned more minutes. Maybe even start him and put Caleb Martin back to the sixth man role.

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Adjustment 3: Stop going under Jamal Murray screens 

Way too many times, the Heat went under screens set for Murray when he had the ball in his hands. He had an easy 25 points and 10 assists because nobody made him press or uncomfortable. Chase around screens, recover and rotate. He can’t have a full field of vision.

Read John Hollinger: Heat need an altitude adjustment

Is Ja in Trouble?

Adam Silver’s distraction

During NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s state of the union address before Game 1, he was asked about the Ja Morant investigation, following an incident last month in which an Instagram Live video appeared to show him holding a gun. This was part of Silver’s response about the status of that investigation:

“We’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information. We probably could have brought it to a head now, but we’ve made the decision that it would be unfair to these players and these teams to announce that decision in the middle of this series.”

You know what you did by stating you didn’t want to distract from the NBA Finals with the findings from this investigation? You distracted from the NBA Finals. 

I’m honestly shocked by this answer from Silver. The Heat and Nuggets were no longer the story hours before Game 1. The commish could have easily said the investigation is over and they’re weighing their options, or it would be inappropriate to comment at this time. Instead, he put every spotlight he could on the idea/speculation that Ja Morant could be in for a long suspension.

Maybe there is some forthcoming reporting about the findings, and the league office is trying to get ahead of it. Maybe they’re hoping to create an embargo until the Larry O’Brien Trophy is being hoisted in celebration. Maybe we have a situation like in “Community,” when there was a fake Dean Pelton to run the school, and that wasn’t the real Adam.

Either way, it was a terrible answer to give if the goal was not to distract.

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Read Sam Amick: More on Adam Silver and Ja Morant

Bounce Passes

Michael Malone and Erik Spoelstra are happy about faithful franchises + David Aldridge on how patience can pay off.

You have to read Marcus Thompson II on Mike Breen as he approaches his 100th NBA Finals game.

Put your pink slips away. Joe Mazzulla will return as Celtics coach.

A postmortem on the Celtics’ season, including an insane admonishment from managing partner Wyc Grousbeck.

A great story from Marc Spears on Sparky Gonzales, the Nuggets’ longtime equipment manager.

The Raptors still don’t have a coach. Eric Koreen looks at some candidates.

(Photo: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)