Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra had a lot to say after his team lost Game 3 of the 2023 NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets at home.
The two-time champion was first asked to talk about the challenge of stopping Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Both Nuggets stars had triple-doubles in Game 3.
“Yeah, it’s a great duo,” Spoelstra said. “Their games really complement each other. You have one guy that really can score in a lot of different ways. Another guy who is setting great screens or handoffs, and if the ball gets back to him, he can get a bunch of people involved. Certainly, at the beginning of the game, that kind of set the tone. But from there, we lost a lot of physical 50/50 or ball in the air, ball on the floor battles throughout the course of the game, at key moments. When the moments could have been swing moments, they were coming up with those plays.
“You have to expect that — not losing the battles. You have to expect there to be elite talent in the Finals. Both those guys are elite-level talent. At our best version, we find ways to overcome that, make it tough on them, and then certainly not lose the overwhelming majority of those physical battles, the 50/50 battles, the ball in the air, ball on the floor battles. That made it too much to overcome. The dynamic of those two, but also getting all the extra, effort points.”
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The Heat were outscored by the Nuggets 29-20 in the third quarter. That’s when the game got away from Miami.
Denver shot 51.3% from the field in Game 3, and Spoelstra wasn’t happy with how his guys defended.
“We didn’t offer much resistance,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of those plays were relief points in transition that kind of gave them some separation. Some cuts, some timely cuts, and then timely offensive rebounds that led to either buckets or free-throw attempts from there.”
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Game 4 is a must-win outing for the Heat, who can’t afford to go down 3-1 with the series shifting back to Denver for Game 5.
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