MANILA, Philippines – The 2023 NBA Finals won’t be featuring the teams a lot of fans expected but make no mistake about it, it will be an intriguing series.
First, people forget that the Denver Nuggets are the No. 1 team in the West, just overshadowed by the bigger franchises throughout the year, and are now four games away from their first-ever title.
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Second, the Miami Heat are a known commodity, but being the eighth seed, were not given much of a chance in these playoffs, especially after losing to the Hawks in the first game of the play-in tournament. But they have gone 13-6 in the postseason since then, and are eyeing the fourth title for their boss Pat Riley.
Earlier today, I was able to join the Nuggets media day with coach Michael Malone, who I love to watch and listen to because he is one of the most eloquent and outgoing coaches in dealing with the media. He aired his thoughts on the upcoming series.
Q. What’s your theme for this finals series?
MALONE: Well, as I told our team, forget the eighth seed stuff. They beat Milwaukee 4-1. That team had the most wins in the NBA this year. They beat Boston 4-3 and they were up 3-0, the team with I think the second most wins in the NBA this year.
So, you get to the NBA Finals, it's not about seeding anymore, and for those who are thinking that this is going to be an easy series, I don't even know what to say to you people. This is going to be the biggest challenge of our lives. This is the NBA Finals. You're trying to win the first NBA championship in franchise history, and it's going to be the hardest thing that we've ever done, which is the way it should be.
But regarding the themes, obviously a couple things that jump out to me, they're leading the playoffs, in points off turnovers, close to 20 a night, and that's after, I think, 18 games played. So, it's pretty impressive.
On the other end of that is that we're No. 1 in fewest points allowed off of our turnovers. So that's a battle that's going to be really important, and we can't turn the ball over.
We know how good they are on the defensive end. We've had a great offense, in large part because we are shooting the ball well and we're not turning the ball over, so that's really important in terms of not beating ourselves with turnovers.
The 3-point line, you have the two best 3-point shooting teams in the playoffs. They're just ahead of us at 39%. Obviously, Jimmy and Bam attract so much attention, but you have to give so much credit to Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent. We know Duncan Robinson is a great shooter, we know Max Strus is a great shooter. Tyler Herro will be back at some point. We know what he's capable of. Obviously, just been so impressed with Gabe Vincent, the poise and confidence he's playing with, and Caleb Martin could easily have won the MVP of that Eastern Conference championship. He's just shooting into a very big basket right now, playing with tremendous confidence, so the three-point defense will be really important in terms of us guarding that, and we've done a pretty good job of that throughout the regular season and the Playoffs.
With a guy like Jimmy, you've got to give him different looks. You cannot guard him with the same play or the same scheme over a game, over four quarters or a series. That's going to be a challenge to give him different looks and to keep him off the foul line.
He's third in the playoffs in free throw attempts per game. I think they're at 9.1. We know a lot of their guys are real big shot fake players, so they're disciplined to stay down, be the second man off the floor. Give them one shot; it's going to be really important.
The last thing I would say is that we have to continue to get out and run. We're second in the playoffs in fast break points per game. In our two head-to-head meetings, we only averaged nine and a half fast break points against them, which is our third lowest against our 29 opponents.
Getting pace, getting fast break, getting attack, getting altitude into this series while home will be really important.
Q: You believe that the altitude will play a factor in this series?
MALONE: Well, I mean, you see it all throughout the season when teams come in here. The altitude is real. I think they got in late last night, so they're gonna try to acclimate as quickly as possible.
When we're playing our game, regardless of who we're playing, when we're playing our game at its best, it starts with our defense and our rebounding, and then our running. When we can establish that pace of play, and once again, we're averaging close to 17 fast break points a game in these Playoffs, that makes it really hard for visiting teams to kind of sustain and stay with that initially. Most teams will wind up getting their second wind and be able to work themselves into that.
But yeah, the altitude is here. Might as well use it to our advantage.
When I hear from guys like Dan Issel, who will text me, and he said it in the Lakers series, just keep running these Lakers off the floor, and that's something that Coach [Doug] Moe did years ago, and I think we have to continue to use that to our advantage whenever possible.
Q. Jimmy Butler will be a focal point of your defense.
MALONE: For me, when I look at Jimmy Butler, what separates him from most players is the drive, the competitive spirit within him, a relentless attack.
It was really cool seeing the press conference they showed from last year when they lost and how everything he talked about in that moment kind of came to fruition a year later, and he has this team back in the finals.
I think what makes Jimmy hard to guard is we know he's talented, he's big, he's strong, he can get to his spots on the court, but he has the gift of drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. But he's a big-moment player. He's not scared. He's tough. He's relentless, and he's a warrior.
Like Jrue Holiday said, it didn't matter who was guarding him, Jimmy was going to get where he wanted to go.
It's not just on Aaron Gordon; it's on all five guys on the floor to try to slow him up and to give him different looks. We'll be ready.
Q. Do you expect your bench to be a factor in the series?
MALONE: Yeah, I mean, it's going to take a full team effort. It's not just on a starting five. We wouldn't be here in the NBA Finals if it wasn't for contributions from everybody, whether that's leading into practice, whether that's a guy like Thomas Bryant going out there and being the best version of Bam Adebayo as a scout team player, and I mean that sincerely. Everybody has got a job to do and do it to the best of your abilities.
But also look at the contributions of guys like Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Christian Braun. Those have kind of been the three guys off our bench that we've played in our eight-man rotation, and each one of those players has had a huge impact in us being 12-3 at this point as we approach Game 1.
The other thing I'll say is in any given series, there's always curve balls. You never know who's going to play. Somebody who has not played a ton of minutes leading up to this point could be a guy that maybe helps us win a game, win a quarter, win a possession, and when you get to the NBA Finals, every possession matters.
We don't have just eight players on our team. We have 17 guys in that locker room that I love and care about and that are a part of us getting to this point of the season.