The Miami Heat take Game 2 to even the series at 1-1! Gabe Vincent: 23 PTS, 8-12 FG, 4-6 3PM, Jimmy Butler: 21 PTS, 9 AST, Bam Adebayo: 21 PTS, 9 REB, 2 BLK while Nikola Jokic: 41 PTS, 8 REB
Mike Malone forewarned the Nuggets about the Heat’s strength prior to the series. He said that for the Nuggets, this series will be their “biggest challenge” and that in the NBA Finals, seeding is irrelevant. I advised our squad to disregard the #8 seed information. They defeated Milwaukee 4-1 and led the NBA in victories this season. The squad with the second-most victories this year defeated Boston 4-3 while leading 3-0. When you reach the NBA Finals, seeding becomes irrelevant. I don’t even know what to say to those of you who believe that this will be an easy series. The biggest difficulty of our life will be this. It’s NBA Finals time.
The Miami Heat won Game 2, and the Denver Nuggets now don’t have home-court advantage in the NBA Finals. Without a question, this was a difficult setback for them, and in order to keep the series from moving to a 3-1 deficit, they must find a way to win one in Miami on the road.
It appears that head coach Mike Malone thinks the Denver Nuggets’ lack of effort was the cause of their defeat. Asserting that this isn’t the preseason, he called out some of his players for being self-critical because they couldn’t make shots. It is true that playoffs are very different from the regular season and that teams reach the NBA Finals for a reason.
“Let’s speak about effort; that’s something I’m really worried about. There were some individuals there who either felt sorry for themselves for missing shots or thought they could just turn it on or off. Not the preseason here. It’s the NBA Finals right now. You tell me why we lost, I pleaded with the guys. They knew the solution. Miami arrived here and outworked us; they took advantage of all of our breakdowns. We’ll see how they do in Game 3 and what happens moving forward, hopefully. Game 3: Wednesday, 8:30 PM ET on ABC
