![]() That was the biggest on-off differential among 252 players who played at least 1,000 minutes this season, and the third biggest differential in the last 15 years.īut in the playoffs, the Nuggets managed to not get destroyed when their best player took a rest. That’s not bad! In the regular season, the Nuggets were an amazing 22.9 points per 100 possessions better with Jokic on the floor (plus-12.5) than they were with him off the floor (minus-10.4). 3 – Over their 20 playoff games, the Nuggets were outscored by just three points in 176 total minutes with Jokic off the floor. ![]() Nikola Jokic may have positioned centers to make a big comeback in the NBA. Aaron Gordon, meanwhile, was the leading scorer in the restricted area (44 total points). Bam Adebayo wasn’t too far behind at 14.4 per game, but shot just 36-for-80 (45.0%) in the paint over the series, compared to Jokic’s 43-for-69 (62.3%). Jokic was the leading paint scorer in the series at 17.2 per game, capping his MVP performance with 11-for-13 shooting in the paint in Game 5. Though the Heat shot just 34.3% from 3-point range in the series, Game 5 was the fourth time that they outscored the Nuggets by double-digits from 3-point range. ![]() That was the biggest points-in-the-paint differential in any of the 15 playoff series this year and the biggest in the Finals in the last 23 years, since the Lakers outscored the Pacers by 21.3 points in the paint per game in the 2000 Finals. In fact, those 100.0 points per 100 possessions over the last three games were the fewest that the Nuggets allowed over any three-game stretch all season.ġ3.6 – The Nuggets outscored the Heat by 13.6 points in the paint per game in the Finals. After a lot of brutal defensive breakdowns in their Game 2 loss, the Nuggets cleaned things up and got after it on that end of the floor over the last three games. 18-21, 95.8 per 100).Ĭredit a Denver defense that ranked 15th in the regular season, the lowest regular-season defensive ranking for an NBA champion in the last 22 years (since the 22nd-ranked 2000-01 Lakers). Their 100.0 per 100 was their second worst three-game stretch of the season, and their worst since before Thanksgiving (Nov. The Miami Heat almost repeated that feat. It was the third time in the Finals that they made less than half of their shots in the paint.ġ00.0 – The Heat scored just 100.0 points per 100 possessions over the last three games of the Finals.Ī year ago, the last three games of the Finals were the Boston Celtics’ worst three-game stretch of offense all season. They also had their eighth worst free-throw shooting game of the season, going 13-for-23 (57%) at the stripe.īut things were uglier on the other side of the floor, where the Heat shot just 24-for-61 (39.3%) inside the arc, including 22-for-54 (40.7%) in the paint. The Nuggets had their second worst 3-point shooting game of the season (102 total games), going 5-for-28 (18%) from beyond the arc. That was the Nuggets’ least efficient offensive performance of the playoffs and the least efficient offensive performance for any winning team in the postseason (90 total games, including the Play-In). Here are five numbers to know from Game 5 and the series overall …ĩ7.9 – The Nuggets scored 94 points on 96 possessions in Game 5, a rate of 97.9 per 100. He’s the only player in NBA history to lead all players in points (600), rebounds (269) and assists (190) in a single postseason. Nikola Jokic, of course, was the Finals MVP, averaging 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.4 blocks over the five games. This broke a streak of four straight Finals that ended in six games and gave the Western Conference its seventh championship in the last 10 years. Game 5 of the NBA Finals was not pretty, but the Nuggets got it done with a 94-89 victory over the Miami Heat.
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