Denver has yet another opportunity to steal a game on the road in the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets are coming off a huge 109-94 victory in Game 3 over the Miami HEAT. Denver is now 5-3 on the road and holds a 2-1 advantage in the series. They dominated the rebounding battle on Wednesday and have scored effortlessly in the painted area to the tune of 58 percent 2-point shooting (or better) in all three Finals games.
This won't be like some of our other previews. We won't be outlining things to watch in Game 4. We also won't be highlighting potential adjustments that both teams could make. Instead, we'll be celebrating the two-way dominance displayed by Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray in Game 3, and why their paramountcy spells good things for the Nuggets going forward.
Not only did Jokić and Murray become the first pair of teammates to each finish with 30-point triple-doubles in the NBA Finals, but they did so by working together in the two-man game to run Miami ragged. That's without mentioning how well both players served as models for Denver's defense.
INJURY REPORT
Miami:
Bam Adebayo — Available (Right Shoulder Discomfort)
Tyler Herro — Out (Right Hand Surgery)
Victor Oladipo — Out (Left Knee Surgery)
Gabe Vincent — Available (Left Ankle Soreness)
Cody Zeller — Available (Nasal Fracture)
The unstoppable two-man game between Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray
As mentioned, Jokić and Murray made history in Game 3.
Jokić finished with 32 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists and became the first player to record at least 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game. Murray recorded a game-high 34 points to go with 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
It was their two-man chemistry in both the pick-and-roll and handoffs that allowed them to reach such lofty numbers.
After Game 1, we wrote in our Film Study article...
"The HEAT had zero answers for Denver's two-man game between Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. Zero. Murray and Jokić accounted for 90 of Denver's 104 points through scoring and passing, and the two of them linked up repeatedly in Game 1 to put Miami's defense in a tizzy."
Well, three games in, and Miami still has zero answers for Jokić and Murray's two-man showmanship. If there's one reason to feel optimistic about Denver coming out on top in this series, it's that.
10 of Jokić's 28 total assists in the Finals have set up Murray's buckets. 17 of Murray's 30 assists have set up Jokić. They've been an inseparable and unstoppable duo. And Miami can't do a thing about it.
Miami opened Game 3 in a "drop coverage" pick-and-roll defense, which is when the big man (Bam Adebayo in most of these clips) sinks well below the screen instead of defending higher up the floor against ball screens. The goal of drop coverage is to stop drives to the rim and rolls to the basket from the screener. But it can concede shots off the dribble from the ball handler and jump shots from the screener should he pop behind the arc.
As he had all of Game 1, Murray torched Miami's drop coverage for 8 points in the first quarter of Game 3. Interestingly, most of his made shots came off drives near the basket—precisely the type of looks drop coverage is supposed to reduce. Per Second Spectrum, 13 of Murray's 34 total points came off drives to the basket. He was relentless in the downhill setting.
"He's playing phenomenal, I think, the whole playoffs," said Jokić about Murray's monstrous Game 3 performance. "We're just following him... and he's a really good leader. His energy is amazing, and we are just following."
So, Miami was forced to adjust. Instead of running drop coverage, it began "blitzing" Murray and Jokić's pick-and-rolls and handoffs by sending both defenders Murray's way.
If you're wondering, "Wait, wouldn't that leave Jokić wide open with a 4-on-3 advantage?" Well, you'd be correct. And unsurprisingly, the best offensive player in the sport, who can carve up defenses from all three levels of the floor with his shooting and pass the ball like an all-timer, carved up the HEAT.
Jokić splashed a midrange shot, lofted home a floater, and beat Adebayo's closeout with a drive to the rim when Miami sent two defenders Murray's way. He also found Michael Porter Jr. cutting baseline for a bucket when Miami blitzed Murray midway through the first quarter. Murray even got a little greedy himself and swished a midrange shot over two defenders in the fourth quarter. He also beat a trap from Max Strus and Adebayo with sheer speed and dished the perfect pocket pass to Aaron Gordon for the dunk.
In the rare instance that Miami switched the Murray and Jokić pick-and-roll, the duo continued to get busy. Jokić calmly made a running shot over the top of 6'2 Gabe Vincent. Murray nailed a pull-up three out of a handoff with Jokić despite an excellent contest from Adebayo, an impressive make given Bam's one of the NBA's best bigs at switching screens.
Miami's worked hard to "front" Jokić throughout the entirety of the series by having his defender stand on the topside of him and deny the entry pass to disallow him from posting up. Denver countered that by basically turning that "front" into an angeled ball screen for Murray. That's something the Nuggets have done since their very first possession of the Finals, and here that gets Murray a short-range jumper that's completely uncontested.
And then, there was... whatever the heck this is: A perfectly-timed pocket pass from Murray after manipulating the defense. An excellent catch from Jokić. And finally, an 8-foot one-handed jump shot over three defenders?? HUH?!
Jokić set a ball screen for Murray 32 times in Game 3, which per ESPN was tied for the most Denver has run that action all season. The Nuggets spammed the Jokić and Murray two-man game in a do-or-die setting, and Miami was without an answer despite throwing out every coverage in the book. Zone, drop coverage, blitzing, switching, you name it. It didn't make it difference.
"It's greatness, man. It's greatness. That's a dynamic duo right there," said Aaron Gordon about Murray and Jokić's two-man chemistry after Game 3. "They make the right play, they do what the game is asking of them, they take what the game is giving them, and that's the type of game that we kind of expect from them.
Oh, but they also did it on defese
Denver held Miami to just 102.2 points per 100 possessions in Game 3, an offensive rating that sits in just the 18th percentile. It was a remarkable bounceback after allowing 129.1 points per 100 possessions in the Game 2 loss. Denver was locked in defensively from the second the ball was tipped.
Murray and Jokić, who rarely receive recognition for their efforts on that side of the ball, were the catalysts. Together, they set the tone as leaders of the locker room by hustling nonstop and pressuring Miami for all 44 minutes that each of them played.
However, they each got it done in different ways.
Murray went about his business by frantically scrapping around screens to bother shots from behind. Denver guarded Miami's pick-and-rolls in what's known as "ICE coverage," which is a style of pick-and-roll defense where the ball handler's defender angles his body perpendicularly to press the ball handler down the sideline. The screener's defender, meanwhile, drops back in the paint to contain the drive.
Murray carried out the strategy admirably. When Miami had its big men "re-screen" by setting a secondary ball screen, he did an excellent job pursuing by either going over or under that screen depending on the matchup.
So, against someone like Caleb Martin who isn't a giant threat to pull up for shots off the dribble, Murray went under the screen and met him on the other side to bother Martin's drive. He went over the top of ball screens to pressure Gabe Vincent's shots, who's more known for draining looks off the dribble than for getting to the rim. Murray did the same later while defending sharpshooting Max Strus on an off-ball set by flying over the top of Jimmy Butler's screen to contest.
Holistically, Murray displayed mastery of the scouting report and was precise about defending his matchups based on their offensive skillsets.
Speaking of Butler, he's made it a point to hunt down Murray on defense throughout the entirety of the Finals. To do so, he's had Murray's man set a screen for him to coerce a switch, which Denver has mostly conceded throughout the series.
Game 3 was by far Murray's best showing of individual defense against Butler, who went just 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) within 4 feet of the basket. Of course, not all of this was due to Murray's impact, but he had a pair of excellent contests with his hands raised high against Butler that led to misses after getting targetted on switches.
Jokić might've had his best defensive game of the postseason. He did an excellent job oscillating between multiple pick-and-roll coverages.
When Denver needed him to play higher up the floor to stop long-range shots from Miami's sharpshooters, he obliged, at one point stopping Duncan Robinson from coming off a handoff from Adebayo. In the first quarter, he extinguished a five-alarm fire by contesting Strus when he shook free from a screen for a three-point look.
But for the most part, Jokić played in a "drop" coverage and hung back in the paint, particularly against Miami's pick-and-roll between Adebayo and Butler. Doing so allowed Jokić to utilize his 9'4 standing reach to contest shots and... whew.
The Joker gladly cleaned up his teammates' mistakes if they were beaten off the dribble. That's part of the appeal of drop coverage; it gives the big man a head start while contesting shots at the rim.
He was also excellent at rotating over in the front of the basket as a secondary shot blocker when other Nuggets players were put in the pick-and-roll. That's not necessarily a skill set he's particularly well-versed in given how seldom these plays occur, but that didn't stop him from affecting shots as Denver's "low man."
Jokić finished with 2 blocks and absolutely terrorized Miami around the basket. The HEAT shot just 34.8 percent around the rim in Game 3, good for the 0th percentile. For context, the league's worst at-rim shooting team, Oklahoma City, shot 62.6 at the cup in the regular season.
Miami's shot 23.3 percent worse at the rim than normal with Jokić near the basket in the Finals. For all of the talk about his inability to protect the rim, he's sure affected the HEAT's ability to score up close, particularly in Game 3.
When Murray and Jokić are setting the tone like this on defense, the Nuggets feel practically unbeatable. Two more two-way performances from Denver's stars, and the Nuggets could very well cross the finish line with their first NBA championship in franchise history.
TUNE-IN TO Game 4: Wednesday 6:30 p.m. MT, ABC and 92.5FM
