While the Miami Heat prepared for Saturday night’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center, the Denver Nuggets were already preparing for both the Heat and Celtics ahead of the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets earned that luxury after completing the 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals on Monday night. Next up for the Nuggets is Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 1.
“Each round we have one coach dedicated to the opponent,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Friday. “So right now, obviously, we have two coaches, one working on Boston, one working on Miami. We have been talking about both teams every day.”
The Heat’s historic playoff run as a No. 8 seed has left Malone impressed. The Heat already became the sixth No. 8 seed in league history to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round and the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to advance to the conference finals after qualifying for the playoffs through the play-in tournament this year.
“If you talk about Miami, you look at what they’ve done this postseason, being in the play-in, upsetting Milwaukee 4-1 in the first round, beating New York in the second round and jumping out to a 3-0 lead over Boston in the Eastern Conference finals,” Malone said. “Erik Spoelstra is a hell of a coach. Won a championship. He’s been there forever. Jimmy Butler has been played at an extremely high level.
“But when I look at [the Heat], I kind of see a lot of similarities between them and us. People talk about Jimmy, and Bam [Adebayo] was an All-Star, but to me they have guys stepping up every night.”
The list of those from the Heat’s supporting cast who have impressed Malone includes Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Love and Duncan Robinson.
“Gabe Vincent has been phenomenal,” Malone continued. “Him being out [in Game 5] was a big advantage for Boston because Gabe Vincent has been playing so well. Caleb Martin has been playing so well. Kyle Lowry has had a great postseason, Kevin Love, Duncan Robinson. Tyler Herro may come back.”
But Malone knows Butler will be at the center of the Nuggets’ defensive game plan should they face the Heat in the NBA Finals.
“You don’t stop a guy like Jimmy Butler with one player,” Malone said. “It’s not going to be just on Aaron Gordon. It won’t be just on Michael Porter or whoever is guarding him.
“That is five guys defending as one to try to stop a player with that kind of talent. … You have to give him different looks and you have to keep him off balance and you have to have five guys locked into that task one possession at a time.”
The Heat lost both regular-season matchups against the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets and has struggled against Denver in recent years. The Heat has dropped six straight games and 11 of its previous 13 meetings against the Nuggets dating back to the 2016-17 season.
Despite that success, Malone expects a potential series against the Heat to be “hard fought.”
“Miami is tough. They’re going to junk the game up,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said. “They’re defensive oriented. That’s where they make their bank. They’ve got a lot of guys that play very hard, and that alone can win you a lot of games.”
Jokic said he watched only the first quarter of Game 5 of the Heat-Celtics series and wasn’t sure if he would watch Game 6 on Saturday. He said beating the Lakers in the Western Conference finals didn’t produce the emotional high he expected: “I thought it would be a bigger feeling to be honest. I didn’t celebrate.”
EYE TOWARD DRAFT
The Heat scouting department is focused at least partly on the NBA Draft during this playoff run; Miami has the 18th pick in the June 22 draft.
Among players linked to the Heat at No. 18 in mock drafts: Iowa swing forward Kris Murray (nbadraft.net), Connecticut guard Jordan Hawkins (cbssports.com), Duke swingman Dariq Whitehead (Sports Illustrated), New Zealand-based NZ Breakers swingman Ryan Rupert (ESPN.com) and Ohio State guard Brice Sensabaugh (Fox).
ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said Rupert’s” defensive versatility and outstanding intangibles could be attractive to the Heat’s front office, which has long been drawn to long-armed, versatile players in this mold who play a selfless style of basketball.”
In ESPN’s mock draft, other players projected for the Heat’s range are Alabama power forward Noah Clowney (16th in Givony’s mock draft), Michigan swing forward Jett Howard (17th), Michigan swing guard Kobe Bufkin (19th) and Sensabaugh (20th).
Unlike the NFL, the NBA does not change a team’s draft position if it advances to the championship.
▪ Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, awaiting the start of the Stanley Cup Final, was expected to attend Saturday’s game and appear on TNT’s NBA pre-game show. TNT is carrying the entire Cup Final for the first time.