NBA

Nikola Jokic has triple-double to lead Nuggets past Heat in Game 1 of NBA Finals

By Sports Desk June 01, 2023

The Denver Nuggets didn’t show much rust despite a lengthy layoff and Nikola Jokic stepped up down the stretch in his NBA Finals debut, helping his team hold off the Miami Heat for a 104-93 victory in Game 1 on Thursday.

Jokic scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter – including eight in the final four minutes after the Heat stormed back to cut a 24-point deficit to just nine points.

The two-time league MVP also assisted on 14 baskets and grabbed 10 rebounds to notch his ninth triple-double of this year’s playoffs.

Jokic had plenty of help with Jamal Murray finishing with 26 points and 10 assists, Aaron Gordon adding 16 points and six rebounds and Michael Porter Jr. chipping in 14 points and 12 boards for a Nuggets team that improved to 9-0 at home in the playoffs.

 The Heat were led by Bam Adebayo’s 26 points and 13 rebounds, while Gabe Vincent scored 19 and Haywood Highsmith had 18 points off the bench.

Jimmy Butler, the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals, had 13 points – his fewest of the playoffs – along with seven rebounds and seven assists.

With nine days off between games after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, there was concern that the Nuggets would be a bit rusty, but that wasn’t the case.

Playing in its first Finals in the franchise's 47-year history, Denver came out firing on all cylinders early in front of a raucous crowd, shooting 59.5 per cent in the opening two quarters to jump out to a 59-42 half-time lead.

The Nuggets pulled away in the third quarter to build an 84-60 advantage but the battle-tested Heat responded.

Highsmith scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and his 3 with 2 ½ minutes to play pulled the Heat within nine points, but that is as close as they would get.

Game 2 will be Sunday in Denver, and it’s possible Tyler Herro will be cleared to play.

Herro has been sidelined since fracturing his right hand in Miami’s playoff opener on April 16, and has been increasing his basketball activities in the last week.

Related items

  • 'He's a magician' – Mavs laud Irving after stunning buzzer-beater downs Nuggets 'He's a magician' – Mavs laud Irving after stunning buzzer-beater downs Nuggets

    Kyrie Irving's Dallas Mavericks team-mates heaped praise upon the eight-time All-Star after his incredible buzzer-beater downed the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, with center Daniel Gafford describing him as a "magician".

    With just 0.4 seconds remaining in a back-and-forth contest, Irving hit a dramatic floating shot with his left hand to stun the reigning NBA champions and end their five-game winning streak.

    Taking an in-bounds pass from Maxi Kleber after Jamal Murray had misfired at the other end, Irving dribbled to just behind the free-throw line before sinking his stunning left-handed runner.  

    That lifted the Mavs to their fifth win in their last six games, improving them to 39-29 as they battle for a playoff spot. 

    Irving finished with 24 points in support of Luka Doncic, who had 37 on his return from a hamstring injury, meaning the duo accounted for over half of the Mavs' total.

    Asked about Irving's buzzer-beater, Doncic said: "That shot was unbelievable, man. I couldn't believe it."

    Gafford added: "He's a magician. He is a very crafty finisher, but finishing somewhere that far around the basket?

    "I don't know if he works on something like that, but I know he works on his left hand. It went in and then we just got crazy."

    Irving himself, meanwhile, was himself taken aback when watching replays of the shot, saying it was pure instinct.  

    "I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked at it after the game and I was pretty far out…" he said. "The majority of it is instinctual and comes from preparation for hours that no one sees.

    "I saw [Nikola] Jokic taking away my pull-up going left. I knew that he was going to come up, but I didn't know he was going to commit like that, so he was forcing me inside the 3-point line. 

    "As soon as I felt him kind of behind me, I was like, 'oh, I have my left hand. It's wide open, so why not go to it?'"

  • George concerned over Clippers' identity crisis George concerned over Clippers' identity crisis

    The Los Angeles Clippers need to discover their identity, so said Paul George after a loss to the Atlanta Hawks made it four defeats from five games.

    Los Angeles slipped to a 110-93 defeat to the Hawks on Sunday, leaving them just one game ahead of the surging New Orleans Pelicans in the tussle for the number four seed in the Western Conference.

    Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 28 points while George added 26, though James Harden contributed just nine, albeit while laying on as many assists.

    But the Clippers' veterans did not have enough to drag Tyronn Lue's team over the line.

    When asked if the Clippers were resembling a team of stars who though they could switch their game on at ease, George replied: "I mean that's what we're appearing to look like, which is not good.

    "We want to be a team that's consistent and we want to establish an identity. I've always spoken about having an identity and I think it's extremely important.

    "Right now, I don't think we have an identity."

    Leonard suggested the Clippers' mentality has to change.

    "It's between the ears with us," he said. "We've got to go out and do it.

    "Just seeing what we want to do. That's it. What type of team we want to be.

    "If everybody's saying they want to be one of the last teams standing, then we got to go out and do it."

    Coach Lue is searching for answers.

    "When they do it, it works," he said. "When you have so much talent and you have guys that can do it so easily, they don't understand that your talent is great, but the talent's got to be for the team as well.

    "Maybe it's me. Maybe I've got to do something a little different to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do. [But] I'll never really overreact because I know we're a good team. 

    "If you want to win, I know what it looks like. I've been there, I've seen it."

  • NBA: Mavericks end Nuggets' win streak NBA: Mavericks end Nuggets' win streak

    Kyrie Irving hit a dramatic floating shot with 0.4 seconds left to play that gave the Dallas Mavericks a thrilling 107-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, a result that halted the reigning NBA champions' five-game winning streak.

    Irving took an in-bounds pass from Maxi Kleber and dribbled to just behind the free-throw line before sinking a left-handed runner that lifted the Mavericks to their fifth win in six games. Dallas scored the contest's final five points after the Nuggets fought back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a late 105-102 lead.

    Denver trailed 98-85 with 6:50 remaining before briefly moving ahead with a 20-4 run. After Nikola Jokić's jumper with 1:05 to go tied the game at 102-102, Jamal Murray capped the spurt with a go-ahead 3-pointer with 27.7 seconds left.

    Luka Dončić answered with a 3-pointer on Dallas' ensuing possession, however, and Murray misfired on the Nuggets' next trip down the court to set up Irving's heroics.

    Doncic finished with 37 points and nine rebounds, while Irving had 24 points and nine assists as the star guard duo accounted for over half of the Mavericks' scoring total.

    Muray had 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to help bring the Nuggets back, while Michael Porter Jr. recorded 20 points and Jokic compiled 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

     

    Hot-shooting Bucks outscore Suns despite Antetokounmpo's absence

    On a day in which they were without Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks got big performances from Damian Lillard and Bobby Porits and a season-high 24 3-pointers to come through with a 140-129 win over the Phoenix Suns.

    Portis went 5 of 5 from beyond the arc while amassing 31 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, while Lillard also had 31 points while matching a career high with 16 assists as Milwaukee prevailed despite Antetokounmpo sitting out with a sore hamstring.

    The Bucks got plenty of other contributors while connecting on 58.5 per cent of their 3-point attempts for the game. Khris Middleton poured in 22 points in 25 minutes in his return from a 16-game absence, while Malik Beasley finished 5 of 8 from 3-point range in a 17-point effort.

    Phoenix closed out a 2-2 road trip on a down note despite shooting 58.6 per cent from the field, including an 11-of-15 outing from Bradley Beal in which he tallied 28 points.

    Former Buck Grayson Allen added 25 points while making 6 of 11 of his 3-point tries, but Milwaukee held Suns star Kevin Durant to a season-low 11 points.

    The Bucks seized control with a big second quarter in which they outscored Phoenix by a 43-24 margin to extend a 39-36 first-quarter lead into a commanding 82-60 advantage at half-time. Portis led the way with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting over the first two periods.

    Phoenix cut its deficit down to 100-94 late in the third quarter, but the Bucks ended the period on a 9-0 run capped by a Lillard 3 that gave them a 109-94 lead into the fourth.

    Milwaukee maintained a lead of at least seven points the rest of the way.

     

    Hawks halt three-game skid with key win over Clippers

    Dejounte Murray totalled 21 points and 10 assists as the Atlanta Hawks got back on track with a 110-93 victory over the slumping Los Angeles Clippers.

    De'Andre Hunter added 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting off the bench to help the Hawks snap a three-game losing streak and hand the Pacific Division-leading Clippers a fourth defeat in five games.

    Murray hit 5 of 10 attempts from 3-point range as Atlanta shot 50 per cent (17 of 34) from beyond the arc compared to 30.6 per cent for Los Angeles, which struggled to get any complementary scoring beyond stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

    Leonard finished with 28 points and George had 26, but no other Los Angeles player reached double figures despite James Harden's return from a two-game absence caused by a strained left shoulder.

    Harden dished out nine assists but had just nine points on 3-of-10 shooting in 36 minutes.

    The Clippers particularly struggled during a second quarter in which they were outscored by a 30-15 margin by Atlanta, which opened up the period on an 8-0 run to build a 39-29 lead just over two minutes in.

    Atlanta later scored 12 consecutive points to extend its advantage to 61-40 with two minutes remaining before half-time, and the Hawks' margin grew to as many as 29 points early in the fourth quarter.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.