The Heat broke the Nuggets' playoff home unbeaten run and returned to Miami with home-court advantage. I don't know if you can guess this result before the start of G2, when the Heat were overtaken by the Nuggets until the point difference was opened to 15 points, you still believe that there will be a turnaround. While some penalties in the second half of G2 were a disastrous experience for the Nuggets, there's no denying that the Heat played a memorable game and found some ways to change their balance, pulling out near-perfect offensive and defensive execution in the final quarter, combined with an unexplained three-point burst, once again allowing another two-in-a-row MVP in front of the TV to shout: "I love this sport so much."
Spoo said after the game that he regretted G1 not starting Loafer. In fact, a person that many commentators and fans feel can do, the coach did not come out at the first time, does not mean that the coach responds slowly. Spoo's G1 continuation of the two games after the Eastern Conference finals is undoubtedly because Martin has previously put out a quasi-All-Star level performance, and with you not being 100% sure that Love will work better, it is an understandable decision to continue to hire people. But after Martin's form fell back and the effect was not good, whether Love could do it became the Heat's only hope to save the series.
As the preview said, the premise for the Heat to win the Nuggets was that Love could stay on the court, and it was that amazing version, and Love did. Love shot 2-of-9 from the field and didn't shoot much efficiently, but his going to the counter Gordon produced at least three positive effects:
Effect 1, avoiding Gordon's continuous high and low eating like the opening of G1. Needless to say, G1 Gordon almost ate the Heat rotation players, while G2 he only scored two empty catches on Love's head;
Effect 2, using Gordon to drag space to assist in defense many times, and helped teammates prevent Jokic's smooth and low positions several times. It's somewhat similar to the series with the Bucks — what you expect from Love would have been three-pointers, rebounds, top defense, long passes and cover, and Love actually provided smart defense;
Effect 3, Love's counterpoint Gordon resulted in the liberation of Butler. The G1 Heat only Butler's confrontation can compete with Gordon, resulting in Butler being completely locked in this position and unable to get out. Love took over Gordon so that Butler could go to the front line to defend Murray. Butler squeezed the cover well, clinging to Murray very tightly, and defused the crisis in Murray Jokic blocking several times.
It's true that the Heat had a lot of one-on-one Jokic low rounds in G2, and Jokic only had four assists, which has something to do with the fact that the Heat don't blindly pinch — but that's not all. The main improvement in the Heat's defense is still the mile and the outside of Love and Butler, which tries to limit Jokic's connection to Gordon, as well as Jokic and Murray's hand-to-hand and blocking, and the premise of this effect is the chain reaction that Love has on Gordon.
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Love was the first card the Heat had to build an advantage, but those advantages were all returned after entering the transition segment. The Heat have been unable to take advantage of the transition for two consecutive games, and G2 almost fell in here - the Heat lost by 14 points in Zeller's eight minutes on the floor, and Spall insisted that this addition was not rewarded.
The conceivable explanation is that Love was taken as the No. 4 position and Reba used for a long time, and if you eat the No. 5 position time in the transition section, it may not be easy to arrange the rotation. Love's defensive effect as a No. 4 position is very good, and it may not be a single interior line as a connecting section.
Even if this explanation is plausible, it's confusing why Spoh is reluctant to synchronize Reba and Jokic's time. In both games, Reba rested first, Jokic was still on the floor to play Zeller, and Zeller Butterman made a series of mistakes on the offensive end, and in just a few minutes he lost all the advantages that the Heat had previously established.
The advantage of Reba's first rest is that he can return to the court before Jokic in the second quarter, which may be considered a horse race? But this time period caught up with the Nuggets' bench to change defense, Butler was not on the floor, and the Heat, including Reba, could not break it, so it entered the passive rhythm of making mistakes and being counterattacked. The Nuggets' Green, Brown, Gordon, these Heat dared to let go of the point three points erupted, responded one after another, and forcibly broke the Heat's joint defense. Three headwinds in the connection — Zeller's bad, Nuggets' three-point response, and the Heat's inability to change defenses — took the Heat from an opening lead to a second-quarter interruption trailing by 15 points. Prior to this, in this year's playoffs, no team could beat the Nuggets in this situation.
How did the Heat turn around?
Speaking of Butler earlier, he said, "He always handles a round in a better way." Butler is not a big blocker with a big jump shot, the Nuggets will give him space to shoot, and G1G2 has iron shots in both games. But Butler doesn't stop his team's offense because he can't respond to the opponent's strategy, he goes as deep as he can when blocking breakouts, watching and looking for opportunities in the bottom corner or 45° on the weak side.
It's the flip side of the Heat's three-point accuracy — they are always patient and pick opportunities from their opponents' inevitable defensive flaws. This is not Butler's personal trait, the Heat have this attribute up and down. In the fourth quarter, the Heat scored 36 points, and there were some magical offensive rounds, such as Dunroe tearing up the defensive three-pointer, breaking through Murray to score 2+0, and rolling dry Green to finish the finish, showing the true colors of a tough guy. Butler once made a three-point hard solution in the bottom corner at a crucial moment, Lowry threw a long-range three-point throw, and even caused three free throws.
These goals are difficult for you to explain in terms of "reasonable choice" and "tactical awesome", and they are all proper and difficult operations.
However, the heat is wonderful that they don't want to let themselves go after a few difficult steps. Dunroe started the fourth quarter by shooting outside and incarnating Curry in one minute, and then what?
Then he really played "Gravity", the Nuggets turned green in seconds, and Malone found that he was actually taking Mazura's script in the fourth quarter.
Butler pulled out a three-point shot in the bottom corner, and it is said that Butler scored this kind of ball as providence, but when thinking of the death of the Bucks and the Green Army, it is difficult for the Nuggets not to believe that there is a providence. As a result, Butler can point Gordon to break through to the middle range to play 2+1.
It's the same with Lowry, since Pope is going to stick to my super long range three-pointer, it's much easier to block the ball.
These rounds all happened just after the party had "exploded of luck" from outside the three-point line, turned their heads, and the Heat let the Nuggets drink both glasses of poison from the threat of difficult goals and high difficult goals.
Of course, it is fortuitous to be favored by luck, but some people, some teams, they obviously did not live up to the favor of luck. The Heat can get to this point, and always shoot more accurately than expected because they did enough of the right things. These people, you give them a chance, they really use it.
In the fourth quarter, the Heat's joint defense once again helped them stabilize the situation. Wouldn't the nuggets with Mr. Joe break the Heat's joint defense?
Apparently not, Fourth Saving Kic scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and when he was there, the Nuggets couldn't be said to be bad at breaking the Heat's defense. However, the Heat's efforts still made it difficult for the Nuggets to play, and the Nuggets needed Gordon's three-point response, Murray's difficult three-pointer, and Jokic's three-point to find Murray after grabbing the front board to close the point difference, which is certainly better than Jokic casually dealing cards, Gordon and Murray have a chance to struggle.
The Heat are constantly switching between joint defense and staring, and will also join some full-court pressing, putting pressure on the ball, they are repeatedly disrupting the Nuggets' offensive rhythm, maybe Malone just thought of a countermeasure, the Heat has entered the next link. But Jokic is too strong, and in this situation, he can also find opportunities - that is, even if the Heat continue to do the right answer, the possibility of them dying of Jokic being too strong is still very high - but the Heat's joint defense can still do this occasionally:
Let players other than Jokic handle the rounds.
The preview said the Heat will find a way to prevent Jokic from receiving the ball. While a center with the largest receiving radius in the defense league sounds silly, it's not without meaning. When breaking the defense, if Jokic can't catch the ball below the free throw line, his near basket advantage can't be used. If Jokic catches the ball in an area away from the basket, his threat of breaking the defense is also greatly reduced.
Therefore, the Heat's joint defense will take a player around the front to defend Jokic, increasing the difficulty of Jokic receiving the ball deeply. At this time, no matter how smart Jokic is, the brain to handle the round is also in the hands of the Nuggets' teammates who have the ball at the moment, and his teammates are more likely to make some wrong choices than Jokic.
The Heat only defended what they could, Jokic or Jokic. But on the night of the explosion at the other end of the pitch, those rounds decided the outcome of the game.
I don't believe Miami can maintain 48.6 percent of its three-point sight per game, and of course, Alphabet and Tatum think so. The reality is that the Heat shot 60%, 44.4% and 48.5% from three-point range in the series against the Bucks, and 51.6%, 54.3%, 46.7% and 50% against the Greens. If the Heat can still do this for another round, they must admit that Randle and Thibodeau are the real ones, only they can calm the Heat's king, so that the opponent does not exceed 35% of the three-point sight per game. As long as the Heat feel cool, it will still be difficult for them to win the Nuggets, and the basic advantage is still on the Denver side.
But the Heat's performance in the G2 offers some possibilities. After the launch of Loafer, their starters suppressed the Nuggets starters, and the Nuggets starters were the Nuggets' biggest competitive capital. Can the Heat find a way not to use Zeller? If Hiro still has the possibility of returning, will they get the bridging advantage that they never obtained? If they could, the Heat could put enough pressure on the Nuggets.
Conversely, the Nuggets couldn't make Loafer so comfortable. The combination of Reba + Love certainly can't make Jokic become constipated by tearing his hands out like the Lakers with thick eyebrows behind him, but the Heat's improved size is clearly diluting the Nuggets' important advantage. The Nuggets want to target Love and make Spall hesitate. In addition, Porter needs to feel the callback, and after Malone abandons him in the crucial stage, the Heat can test both Gordon and Brown, which will give Jokic and Murray more strength to break the defense.
The Nuggets haven't been too worried yet, though they heard it when the Bucks lost. G2 somewhat offers a glimpse of the possibility that the series will become protracted.
This year's playoffs are getting more and more interesting.