As he attacked with aggressiveness and shot with efficiency, Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo showed more than just his expanded offensive game. In the Denver Nuggets’ 104-93 win over the Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Adebayo’s 26 points on 13-for-25 points also surprisingly signaled a red flag. It exposed the Heat’s lack of offensive depth.
“We didn’t go in saying we’re going to make Bam Adebayo beat us,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone told reporters. “We came in with full respect for Bam Adebayo. But if you’re going to score 26 points on 25 shots, that’s something we’re willing to live with.”
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As he guarded in the post and along the perimeter, Adebayo displayed more than just his defensive versatility. With the Nuggets featuring five players scoring in double digits, the Heat also revealed their defensive vulnerability with their different personnel and zone defense.
“Scheme is not going to save us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. “It’s going to be the toughness and resolve, collective resolve. That’s us at our finest, when we rally around each other and commit to doing incredibly tough things.”
That leaves Miami with various items to address in Game 2 against Denver on Sunday (8:00 pm ET, ABC).
Miami needs more scoring than just from Adebayo, who logged his seventh postseason double-double. The Heat need Caleb Martin (1-for-7), Max Strus (0-for-10) and Duncan Robinson (1-for-6) to shoot more effectively than they did in Game 1. The Heat want Jimmy Butler to score more efficiently than he did in Game 1 (13 points on 6-for-14 shooting). And the Heat hope they receive more trips to the free-throw line than they did in Game 1 (0-for-2).
“Bam is an All-Star and he had a great game. Now it’s up to us to help him out,” Strus told reporters.” He did a great job finding his own shot and getting other guys involved, too.”
Can the Heat get other guys more involved defensively, too?
The Heat and Adebayo both have argued he should have won last year’s NBA Defensive Player of the year award because of his positional versatility, decision making and athleticism. But Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (27 points, 14 assists) and guard Jamal Murray (26 points, 10 assists) easily sliced through the Heat’s defense even when Adebayo served as the primary defender.
According to NBA.com’s tracking data, Jokic shot 5-for-8 when Adebayo defended him and Murray went 3-for-4 when Adebayo switched on him. As Jokic and Murray accounted for 24 of the team’s 29 assists primarily through pick-and-roll action, Adebayo conceded the Heat kept allowing the Nuggets’ duo to accomplish two things.
“Open shots. Open looks,” Adebayo told reporters. “The biggest thing for us is making both of them work in not as much space and really making them take difficult shots.”
Good luck. Instead of taking those difficult shots, Jokic and Murray passed to open teammates. Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon scored 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting often off a putback or when Jokic faced a swarming defender. Michael Porter Jr. (14 points) and Bruce Brown (10 points) waited patiently in the wings to catch the ball anytime Murray or Jokic failed to find an open shot.
“We’ve got to figure that out because that’s coming at us every possession — if not every possession, damn sure every other possession,” Butler told reporters. “We’ll key in on it. We’ll lock on it. But it’s tough, no matter who it is, guarding those two guys, who are willing passers and can give you 50 [points] on any given night. Then they have shooters everywhere on the floor. But you’re going to have to do hard things to get to where you want to get to.”
The Heat took some consolation from a few defensive-related developments. Denver scored 11 points less than its post-season scoring average (115.6). The Nuggets shot only 8-for-27 from 3-point range (29.6%). And Miami forward Haywood Highsmith added 18 points and defensive physicality during the team’s late come-back effort.
Still, those developments may not have meant much. The Nuggets coasted a bit after creating a comfortable lead. Denver compensated for their poor 3-point shooting with swift ball movement that led to other high-percentage shots. And Highsmith didn’t limit Jokic (2-for-4) and Murray (1-for-2) on the few plays he defended them.
Miami’s solutions point mostly to the offensive end.
The Heat take comfort in Adebayo’s strong Game 1 performance after producing less offensively in the team’s playoff series against Milwaukee (17.4 points on 46.3%), New York (18.7 points on 52.9%) and Boston (14.9 points on 48.2%). The Nuggets were not necessarily daring a weak offensive player to shoot, though. In his sixth NBA season, Adebayo averaged a career-high in points per game (20.4) and shot attempts (14.9) during the regular season by showing consistency with his aggressiveness, shot selection and positional versatility.
Yet, the Heat seem more effective when Adebayo can also facilitate. Instead, the Nuggets focused on preventing Butler from going downhill after he ran pick-and-roll sets with Adebayo. The Heat believed they also settled for too many jumpers, which contributed both to clanks and a lack of whistles.
“We want to get J.B. and Bam involved as much as possible. They are our two best players,” Spoelstra told reporters. “We have to do it in different ways so it’s not just a steady diet of whatever that may be. And there were certain aspects of what we did the other night that were very good, and there are other areas offensively where we definitely need to improve and be more intentional.”
One of those areas involves ensuring that its proven shooters actually make shots.
The Heat sounded confident that will happen considering Robinson (44.6%), Martin (43.8%) and Strus (35.9%) have mostly shot efficiently from 3-point range during the postseason. No wonder Spoelstra has told those players to keep firing away. Miami might also add another proven shooter to Game 2. Spoelstra declined to definitively rule out Tyler Herro from returning after staying sidelined since Game 1 of the Heat’s first-round series with a broken right hand.
Though the Heat appeared confident with both developments, Miami’s offensive effectiveness will still partly hinge on how well it ensures that Adebayo remains involved. The Heat just have to involve Adebayo much differently than they did in Game 1.
“When Bam is making shots, I think he makes everybody’s job a lot easier,” Butler said. “We want him to continually be aggressive. He was making the right passes when he couldn’t get a bucket as well. Those shots will fall for everybody.”