Denver head coach Michael Malone warns Nuggets ‘haven’t done a damn thing’ despite win over Heat

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone warned his players that the series is not over despite taking the lead with a dominant performance in Game 1.

Nikola Jokic’s triple-double blew away the Miami Heat on Thursday as the Nuggets stormed to a 104-93 victory and a 1-0 lead in the NBA Championship Finals series.

Despite his team’s dominant performance, Malone believes there is still work to be done as he claimed they were not playing well.

“I told our players today, don’t read the newspaper, don’t listen to the people on the radio and TV saying that this series is over and we’ve done something, because we haven’t done anything at all. said Malone.

“We won Game 1. The reason I told our players I was excited this morning is because we won Game 1 and didn’t play well, and there are so many things we can do better. If we do those things at a better level, we have a chance to win Game 2.’

Nikola Jokic’s triple-double blew away the Miami Heat as the Nuggets won Game 1 on Thursday

There are always things that can be done better. Apparently, even for Jokic and Jamal Murray, believe it or not.

They joined Magic Johnson and James Worthy in 1987 as the only teammates to have at least 25 points and 10 assists in the same Finals game – and the Nuggets duo did it in their Finals debut. Jokic had a 27-point triple-double, Murray finished with 26 points, and the podium clearly wasn’t too big for Denver’s top two players.

Denver is also trying to be the first team to start a postseason 10-0 at home since Boston in 2018.

“You just try to win every game. It’s first for four, however you manage it,” Murray said. ‘Of course you want to take advantage of being at home. Like to play at home. But any game you can win, you take. So yeah, we’re looking forward to just winning every game we play.”

Meanwhile, the Heat made NBA history, and not the good kind, by shooting just two free throws in Game 1 as Denver struck first.

It was the fewest free throw attempts ever by a team in a playoff game and makes one of the adjustments for Game 2 on Sunday easy to predict: expect Miami to go into offensive mode.

“The attacks, we didn’t get enough of that,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team sent Denver to the line for 20 free throws in Game 1.

“I thought the free throw difference was appropriate. Maybe we could have gotten two, four, six more based on a call here or a call there. But overall our attacking numbers were lower, and that usually translates into fewer free throws.”

This is Miami’s first 1-0 deficit of the postseason. The Heat won Game 1’s on the road in Milwaukee, New York and Boston en route to the Finals; no team had ever won four Game 1s away from home in the same postseason.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hinted that Miami could go into offensive mode for Game 2 on Sunday

And while the Nuggets – rightly so – say they’ve missed a lot of open shots, the Heat can absolutely point to that as a way they’ll improve in Game 2. Max Strus (0 for 10), Caleb Martin (1 for 7) and Duncan Robinson (1 for 6) were a combined 2 for 23 from the floor in Game 1, 2 for 16 from 3-point range.

That would be the simplest and most effective adjustment Miami could make for Sunday – take shots.

“I’m going to continue playing the right way. I’m going to pass the ball to my shooters like I’ve played all playoffs, all year,” said Heat forward Jimmy Butler, who scored 13 in Game 1, his lowest scoring game to date in these playoffs.

“But I think I need to be more aggressive to put pressure on the rim,” he said. ‘I think that makes everyone’s work a lot easier. They certainly follow suit when I’m aggressive on both sides of the ball. So I have to be the one to come out and kick it off the right way – which I will – and we’ll see where we end up.”

The Heat will try to tie the series in Denver on Sunday-evening in Game 2.