The Denver Nuggets have regained home court advantage by beating the Miami Heat, 109-94.
After a fast-paced back-and-forth first half, the Nuggets led 53-48. By the fourth, the Nuggets’ lead ballooned to as much as 21 points.
Nikola Jokic recorded another triple-double with 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, while Jamal Murray also had a triple double with 34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Miami was held to 37 percent shooting and was out-rebounded 58-33.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo combined for 50 points, but the rest of the team had failed to make much an impact.
“I felt this is by far our best game of the series, [the] most complete game of the series. It’s not because of the triple-doubles, or to your point, all the individual stats. It’s because we held that team to 94 points, 37 from the field, only 11 threes. And to out-rebound somebody by 25 in a finals game, that’s a significant number right there. And it wasn’t just Nikola’s 21. Aaron gets 10, Jamal gets 10, Michael gets seven, Christian gets four, 28 assists, 60 [points] in the paint. And the fourth quarter defense, only 31 percent from the field allowed,” Denver coach Michael Malone said.
“I loved our energy, our urgency, our discipline. I thought we were where we needed to be tonight, and we’ll have to be even better come [Saturday morning, Philippine time],” he added.
For his part, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will check the tape and see what Miami has been doing wrong.
“It felt like at times, some of those missed shots at the rim or in the paint, the makeable shots that we’ve made the last several months or weeks, that affected a little bit of our, whatever, going down the other end. And that hasn’t happened a lot,” he said.
“I do want to get to the film because I’m not totally sure about that. It just felt like that. We’re at our best when we’re winning those battles first, so you can just check that box, the physical battles, 50/50s, ball in the air, ball on the floor. We win those battles, we figure everything else out along the way,” he added.
Prior to this game, 75 percent of NBA finals Game 3 winners went on to win the finals.
Game 4 will take place in Miami on Saturday, June 10. (ABS-CBN News)