Nuggets narrowly won to end the Heat's 5-game winning streak, Jokic 18 11 7, Porter 30 11!
On March 1, Beijing time, the NBA Finals champion Nuggets will play a two-game back-to-back matchup against the Miami Heat on their home court. In the first quarter, the Nuggets already had a 16-point lead, and in the second half, they once again opened up the score gap, while the Heat fought back frantically, and the disadvantage of only 2 points was reversed, and finally the Nuggets defeated the Heat 103-97, won 5 games, and established the third position in the West.
For the Nuggets, Jokic had 18 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, Porter had 30 points and 11 rebounds, Gordon had 16 points and Pope had 18 points.
Heat: Butler 21 points, Bam Adebayo rebounds, Deng Loren, Martin 13 points.
This is the first meeting between the two teams this year, and the Nuggets are the second opponent in this series, having beaten the Kings 117-96 yesterday, which is also their record of being swept by the Kings this season. In this game, the Nuggets did without Koonchar and Kaye, while Miami did not have 5 players, such as Shilo, Love, Bryant, before the start of the season, the Nuggets gave Bryant a championship ring, but because he was still suspended, he could not play. In the first quarter, the Nuggets firmly controlled the Heat 9-0, and then the Heat made several more small balls in a row, and then the Nuggets kept the score at 31-16. In the first quarter, the Nuggets went 36-20 to stretch the margin to 16 points, and in the first quarter, they shot 14-of-25, 5-of-5, and Pope was 3-of-11 and 3-of-11. The Heat made just seven of their 18 shots, making 1-of-1 from three-point range.
In the second quarter, the Heat began their offense, and they began a frantic counterattack, with Butler, Rozier, and Ade all scoring on the court. Jokic's slump allowed the Heat to keep tying the score, trailing by 11 points in the second quarter at 31-20, while the Nuggets trailed the Heat by five points at 51-56 in the first half. In the first two quarters, the Nuggets scored in double digits, with Porter scoring 18 points and seven rebounds, Pope scoring 13 points, and Jokic shooting 2-of-8 for six points, six rebounds and three assists. In this game, the Heat only had one player score double-digit stats: Rozier with 10 points, Butler with 9 points, Adebayo and Dunloe with 8 points.
After the game, the Nuggets exploded again, and they gradually took control of the Heat, especially in the third quarter, when they single-handedly chased the score to 20. In the third quarter, Porter scored 12 points to lead the Nuggets to a 27-19 advantage at 27-19 and beat the Heat by 13 points in the first three quarters with a score of 83-70. After three quarters, the Nuggets scored double digits, Jokic scored 10 rebounds and 7 assists, Porter scored 30 and 11 rebounds on 12 of 19, while the Heat had four triple-digits, Butler had 14 4 boards and 3, Adeba had 14 6 boards, and none of the Heat had more than 15 points.
In the final quarter, Holiday made his first three-pointer to bring the deficit to 16 points, and then Gordon scored four straight points to put the Heat in a difficult position. The Heat's 6-0 offensive run was also nine points apart, which put the Nuggets in a stalemate, and Jokic scored four points in a row to establish the advantage of the score. Pope made a three-pointer, Bam Adebayo hit a mid-range shot, and Rozier scored four more points to narrow the score to four. Jokic hit an uppercut shot, and then the Nuggets called a timeout. There are still 8 to go until the endWith 2 seconds to go, Butler scored two straight points and the Nuggets called a timeout. Jokic made two consecutive free throws to keep the Nuggets on a four-point advantage, while the Spurs made another serious mistake at this time, with Pope hitting two consecutive free throws to help the team win.