{"id":304188,"date":"2023-06-05T07:23:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T07:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304188"},"modified":"2023-06-05T08:59:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T08:59:38","slug":"why-coach-exploded-after-ending-66-day-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304188","title":{"rendered":"Why coach exploded after ending 66-day streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erik Spoelstra bristled at the suggestion the Miami Heat<\/a> somehow solved Nikola Jokic<\/a> and the Denver Nuggets<\/a> by allowing the superstar to score at will while taking away his passing lanes and his penchant to elevate his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d Spoelstra interjected after Miami's 111-108 win on Monday AEST sent the series back to Florida tied 1-1 with the home-court advantage suddenly in possession of the eighth-seeded Heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the untrained eye that says something like that,\u201d the Miami coach added.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Pair under fire for classless act amid ball girl controversy<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Star spared axe in Gal's NSW side for Origin II<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Scans confirm Origin fears for injured Cleary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe so, but the top-seeded Nuggets are 0-3 this postseason when Jokic scores 40 or more points. Their last loss in the playoffs was at Phoenix in the second round when he scored 53.<\/p>\n

Jokic is averaging a triple-double in the playoffs. He had 41 points and 11 rebounds on Monday but just four assists \u2014 a season low \u2014 as the Nuggets lost at home for the first time in 66 nights.<\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy is an incredible player,\u201d Spoelstra said. "You know, twice in two seasons he\u2019s been the best player on this planet. You can\u2019t just say, \u2018Oh, make him a scorer'. That\u2019s not how they play. They have so many different actions that just get you compromised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to focus on what we do. We try to do things the hard way, and he requires you to do many things the hard way. He has our full respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Jokic was his dominant self save for his usual double-digit assists, his teammates disappeared after Denver built a 15-point lead in the first half and took an eight-point advantage into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. scored five points and extended his shooting slump in the finals, where he's made just three of 17 shots from long range. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had as many points \u2014 six \u2014 as fouls and Jamal Murray's 18 points snapped his streak of six straight playoff games of 25 or more.<\/p>\n

\"DENVER,<\/p>\n

It was defensively where Denver seriously struggled in losing for the first time in 10 playoff games at Ball Arena. The Nuggets allowed 17 three-pointers, including four from Max Strus, who scored 14 points after his 0-for-10 goose egg in the opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I mentioned after game one, the fact that they got 16 wide-open threes was concerning,\u201d Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t make them. So, we got lucky in game one. Tonight, they made them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler scored 21 after being held to 13 in game one. Reserve Duncan Robinson sparked Miami's 29-10 run to start the fourth quarter with 10 quick points and the Heat went 18 of 20 from the free throw line after getting to the line just once in the opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding," Jokic said.<\/p>\n

Along with so many missed chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told our guys if we would have won this game tonight, we would have stole one," Malone said.<\/p>\n

\"DENVER,<\/p>\n

They nearly pulled off the heist, too.<\/p>\n

Murray's open three-pointer hit the front of the iron, however, and Caleb Martin, replaced in the starting lineup by Kevin Love, corralled the rebound before the buzzer, handing the Nuggets their first loss in 10 home playoff games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good look,\u201d Murray said. \u201cJust didn't go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every starter not named Jokic struggled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don't think that's the biggest question,\u201d Malone said. \u201cLet\u2019s talk about effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was nonexistent, Malone argued. "That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DENVER,<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me the wheels really fell off to start that fourth quarter. They were getting whatever they wanted, threes, layups, and that allowed them once again to sit back in their zone offence, slow the game down, and we had a hard time getting stops, and then we had a hard time getting made baskets on the other end,\u201d Malone said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defence has to be a hell of a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malone asked his players in the sullen locker room why they thought they lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they knew the answer,\u201d Malone said. "Miami came in here and outworked us. … If we\u2019re going to try to go down there and regain control of this series and get home-court advantage back, we\u2019re going to have to outwork Miami, which we didn\u2019t do tonight, and our discipline is going to have to be off the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver came in with an NBA-best 43-7 home record, counting the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"DENVER,<\/p>\n

Jokic had 28 of Denver's 51 points in the second half, forced for long stretches to shoulder the scoring load alone. And now that 40-point output appears to be a whammy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think it has anything to do with that,\u201d Murray said. "It\u2019s defence and discipline."<\/p>\n

Both of which were lacking. So, instead of heading to South Florida halfway to the franchise's first NBA championship, the Nuggets are a shaken team that maybe is finding so much time \u2014 10 days \u2014 between the conference championship and the NBA Finals was too much.<\/p>\n

And they must realise that Jokic, for all his greatness, is no solo act.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I trust about him," Malone said. \u201cis he\u2019s going to make the right read time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He just needs everyone else to do their part.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by <\/strong><\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erik Spoelstra bristled at the suggestion the Miami Heat somehow solved Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets by allowing the superstar to score at will […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304196,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304188\/revisions\/304196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}