#Nuggets suns head to head free#

Denver trailed 117-115 with 2:23 to go, but Murray scored seven straight points - a 3-pointer, two free throws and a floater - to push Denver to the victory. Looking back: While he wasn’t the leading scorer in the game, Murray proved his worth in crunch time. Top performers for Nuggets: Nikola Jokic (19 pts, 12 reb, 12 ast) | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (20 pts) | Jamal Murray (14 pts, 6 reb) | Bones Hyland (16 pts, 4 ast) Top performers for Heat: Bam Adebayo (22 pts, 7 reb, 4 stl, 2 blk) | Tyler Herro (26 pts, 10 reb, 5 ast) | Jimmy Butler (17 pts, 6 reb, 8 ast, 4 stl) | Max Strus (19 pts)

The Denver Nuggets are in their first NBA Finals in franchise history, while the Miami Heat are playing in their seventh Finals overall and sixth since 2011.īelow is a look at the last six regular-season games between the Nuggets and Heat as we gear up for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 1 at Ball Arena ( 8:30 ET, ABC). “We've got to win when we go home,” Williams said, “so we can come back and play here.Jimmy Butler and the Heat will take on Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in the NBA Finals starting June 1. And after playing just four minutes, he reaggravated the issue, leaving him inactive for Phoenix’s next 21 games.Įven with Phoenix’s season in the balance, Paul is still 38 years old, and the risk of losing him for a deeper stretch of the postseason - which Suns personnel surely still believe is attainable - will certainly factor into whatever calculus leads his rehab over the next 48 hours. Booker came back too soon from his own groin injury on Christmas. The Suns are quite familiar with the difficulty of returning from that affliction. He was on the court, shooting with assistant coach and close friend Jarret Jack during pregame activity, and did not look especially comfortable attempting to convert five straight makes at different spots along the 3-point arc. Paul’s status for that possible elimination game remains in question. The Nuggets may not return to this hardwood floor 5,280 feet above sea level until the Western Conference finals if the Nuggets can take care of business in Game 6 at Phoenix on Thursday. Willing is not enough, we must do.” The Nuggets understood their task and, frankly, did it all evening long.ĭenver is 6-0 at home in these playoffs. Next to Murray’s locker, taped onto a black wall, there’s a printout of Bruce Lee and the quote, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. draining four triples in the opening period, rookie wing Christian Braun ripping a steal and flushing a two-handed jam over Durant. They received the complementary contributions the Suns so desperately lacked - Bruce Brown providing 25 points off the bench, Michael Porter Jr. The Nuggets capitalized on that game plan in spades. “The two games in Phoenix, they were the ones who were pushing us all over the place, off our spots, digging into us.” Jokić finished with 29 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in the rout. “We were the aggressors,” said Jokić, Denver’s two-time MVP center who passed Wilt Chamberlain with his 10th postseason triple-double, tying the fifth-highest total in NBA history. “They ran two or three guys at Kevin and Book tonight. “I thought a lot of what they did was to make everything tough on us,” Williams said. Booker airballed one 3-point look from the left wing. He saw wave after wave of defenders and appeared to drown without a life raft or some form, any form, of supplementary offense with Durant on the bench.

He had opened the game a sizzling 5-of-8 from the field en route to 19 first-half points, but Booker shot just 1-of-8 in the third quarter. The Nuggets finally nullified Booker’s offensive eruption throughout these entire playoffs during that stretch. That’s when Denver’s lead first ballooned to 20, with a 77-57 edge. Two minutes after Durant was whistled for a moving screen trying to free Booker lose, Murray met the Suns’ interminable scorer at the rim with 6:48 left in the third, drawing a fourth foul on Durant that caused Williams to sit the 13-time All-Star for whom Phoenix emptied its war chest to acquire at February’s trade deadline.

Nuggets suns head to head