For a just minute or two early in the fourth quarter, it seemed possible, perhaps even probable. Nikola Jokić picked up a fifth personal foul and trudged to the bench. A double-digit deficit – the Miami Heat’s cue to spark into life throughout this unlikely playoff run – was quickly halved with a Jimmy Butler and-one.
The Heat’s Kaseya Center rose with expectation. They had seen this before; the sheer will of a Heat team that has defied conventional logic for two months. In the end though, their eighth-seeded team have met an obstacle they perhaps cannot overcome, even when tossing aside logic.
Jokić is the video game final boss nobody has figured out: the irresistible force and the immovable object combined. And this Denver Nuggets team, which found new and excruciating ways to hurt their opponent in Game 4 of the NBA finals, now seems insurmountable. They’re a mile high and then some.
Back-to-back convincing wins on the Heat’s home floor have given Denver a 3-1 lead with the series heading west on Monday for the first of the Nuggets’ three chances to clinch a first NBA title.
Miami gallantly chipped away for much of Game 4, scrapping for every single basket, just to remain within striking distance. Every stop on defense was a sheer labor; even more so than usual for a team that has thrived on the attritional elements of playoff basketball.
Schedule
Best-of-seven series. All times EDT.
Thu 1 Jun Game 1: Nuggets 104, Heat 93
Sun 4 Jun Game 2: Heat 111, Nuggets 108
Wed 7 Jun Game 3: Nuggets 109, Heat 94
Fri 9 Jun Game 4: Nuggets 108, Heat 95
Mon 12 Jun Game 5: Nuggets 94, Heat 89
But the monolithic Serb’s ability to reignite and renew his team proved too effective. Even with his own offense stifled and inefficient at the rim, Jokić delivered Curry-range three pointers, mood-shifting defensive strips and incisive passes few others see, let alone execute.
How do you solve a problem like Jokić? When a team finds one answer, they’re soon reminded he poses five more questions. And he’s far from the only one. As Miami trimmed it to five amid Jokić’s foul trouble, Jamal Murray picked up the offensive pace to slam the door closed by way of 12 assists. Aaron Gordon explosively exploited defensive mismatches to the tune of a game-high 27 points and plus-29 rating. Former Miami Hurricane Bruce Brown delivered timely daggers off the bench with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-5 from deep.
For the Heat, ‘Playoff Jimmy’ was more just plain ‘off Jimmy’. The Miami star has appeared oddly jaded and aloof all series. The can’t-miss moments that propelled the No 8 seeds past Milwaukee, New York and Boston were again absent in Game 4. His supporting cast of Great Undrafteds have been unable to reproduce the magic of those previous triumphs. All-Star Bam Adebayo again had some success with an aggressive offensive approach against Jokić, but misses and turnovers at decisive moments often halted whatever momentum Miami could muster.
For a third time in four games, Miami were held to under 100 points. It hasn’t been enough and, barring an incredible reversal of fortunes, will not be. From 3-0 up against Boston in the Eastern Conference finals, the Heat have gone 2-6 since. It feels like the end of the road.
Yet the team is far from entering concession mode. Head coach Erik Spoelstra, Adebayo and Butler assured reporters they aren’t heading to the Rockies just to watch the coronation.
“We have an incredibly competitive group,” Spoelstra said afterward. “We’ve done everything the hard way and that’s the way it’s going to have to be done right now. Again.
“All we’re going to focus on is getting this thing back to Miami (for a Game 6). Things can shift very quickly. It’s going to be a gnarly game in Denver that’s built for the competitors in our locker room.”
Adebayo added: “We just will not quit. We’ve seen a team come back from 3-0 first hand. Amongst us, there’s lot of people pissed off, but the biggest thing is it’s first to four.”
Said Butler: “No doubt. No quit. On Monday, we’re going to do what we’ve said the entire time and win. We have no other choice. Otherwise, we did all this for no reason.”
“All this” has been a quite a bit. Scraping into the NBA playoffs through the play-in tournament and reaching the finals by eliminating the No 5, No 2 and No 1 has been a historic, herculean task, but no miracle or freak occurrence. No one in the Heat organization is surprised. And why doubt Miami will be back in the NBA finals again in 2024?
Miami remain by far the best-coached and most competitive team in the Eastern Conference, with arguably the game’s purest on-court leader in Butler. The term Heat Culture has become a two-word crutch for lazy TV analysis, but it’s still the strongest and most enduring identity of any current team in this sport.
The chatter about the number of undrafted players was, at times, insulting to guys like Caleb Martin who received four votes (of nine overall) for Eastern Conference finals MVP, missing out only to Butler.
However, the prevailing notion there’s a singular way to ascend in today’s NBA – by developing into a top prospect by your 20th birthday to be fought over in a draft by the league’s worst teams – helps Miami. Their willingness to just do the work with later-bloomers like Martin, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson and Max Strus is self-perpetuating. It keeps Miami under the radar, out of the spotlight and constantly competitive. Mostly, it cultivates an insatiable hunger that comes with scrapping for everything you have.
Milwaukee and Boston – far more talented teams – succumbed to it. Visibly, at times. But this series perhaps teaches us there’s an upper limit against a transcendent, generational talent like Jokić, such intelligent coaching from Michael Malone and an organization that shares much of that ethos of hard work and patient internal development.
Jokić and the Nuggets might be the ceiling Miami just cannot crash through, but Game 5 in Denver gives Heat Culture one more chance to defy conventional wisdom.
