And then there were 2.
Welcome to the NBA Finals everybody.
Throughout the season, I often talked about Phil Jackson’s 40/20 rule.
This season, 3 teams were able to pull this off
1.
Denver Nuggets
So seeing one of those teams in the Finals tracks with NBA history.
Then in the other corner, we have the Heat.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you their run has been a fluke.
They just need to do it 4 more times.
The Nuggets are awesome and have the best player on the planet.
The Heat have the potential to make NBA history as the only 8 seed to ever win a title.
The Celtics series was pretty much the same thing.
This is now the biggest problem the Heat will face while going up against the Nuggets.
A huge part of their success on defense is tied to their matchup 2-3 zone.
It can suffocate you if you aren’t ready for it and don’t attack it the right way.
The thing is, the Nuggets are basically built to take that defense away.
If you watch that zone, everyone can see the biggest hole in it is right around the FT/elbow.
Teams that choose to operate on the perimeter against the Heat zone usually get destroyed.
The Nuggets thanks to Nikola Jokic essentially do the opposite.
In these playoffs, Jokic leads all players with 144 elbow touches.
During the regular season, he led the entire NBA with 674 elbow touches.
This is where the Nuggets so often initiate the offense from.
Think of how that plays out.
He gets a touch there, turns and faces, and what do the Heat do?
I’m not sure how you solve that problem.
The Denver Nuggets are built to do just that.
That’s the Jokic impact.
He draws the defense and he kicks to open shooters, especially in the corners.
Bam is an incredible post defender, but we’re not talking about Al Horford or Robert Williams here.
The Lakers shot just 33% and made 10 3PM a night in that sweep.
The Wolves shot 34% as a team and made 11.
The Suns were better at 36%, but they made just 9 3PM.
As a team, the Heat these playoffs are making 13.1 3PM a game while shooting 39%.
When it came to defending handoffs, the Nuggets ranked in the 44th percentile defensively.
To me, this is going to be the biggest factor for the Nuggets to win this series.
How will their perimeter guys handle getting over Bam screens?
We’ve seen if you play under them, the Heat shooters are going to bury you.
As a team, the Nuggets have the fewest TO average of just 11.4 a game.
That’s dangerous because Nikola Jokic just so happens to be the best passer on the planet.
That’s not exactly someone you want to gamble against.
They rank in the 100th percentile this postseason averaging 1.15 ppp while shooting 53.2% off those sets.
Who do you guard?
I just don’t agree.
In terms of the basketball we’re about to see, it should be pretty fun.
