Initial thoughts from the Nuggets’ win over the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the NBA Finals:
1. Bam Adebayo deserves a yellow card: With international soccer stars Neymar and Paul Pogba in attendance, Heat center Bam Adebayo made a point to sure as heck do them proud. Because his dive with 9:06 left in the game was straight out of the FIFA playbook. As he jockeyed with Nikola Jokic for position midway through the final stanza, the Heat big man saw a window — and then flopped ihs way through it. The act of untangling himself with the Joker and chucking himself onto the floor in mock pain was enough to convince the officials to whistle Jokic for his fifth foul, a potentially fatal loss for the Nuggets, who had a 10-point lead at the time, on the road, against a desperate host. Only without Joker on the floor, the Nuggets still managed to keep a desperate Miami team at arm’s length.
2. Jokic gets another assist — at the rim, no less!: I mean, who says Joker doesn’t have hops? (Other than everybody on the sports networks, of course.) A funky rim after a rattling Bam Adebayo dunk attempt at one end forced the officials to stop play with 2:07 left in the third quarter. Cue Jokic. The two-time MVP tried to get things going by leaping up to the cup with two hands and hanging from the rim to try and balance it out again — not once, but twice. They had to call in the guys with the ladders to get the game moving again, but Jokic deserves another dime for that one, right?
3. MPJ turns a corner? Kinda? Sorta?: The basketball gods are still playing cruel games with Michael Porter Jr., the slumping Nuggets forward who saw at least two shots rim go in and out during the first half. But the only way for a shooter to break out of a cold spell is to shoot his way out of it, starting with the easiest shots possible. After a 2-for-7 opening 15 minutes, Porter let his fading jumper go and cut to the cup, knocking down two of three tries from the floor in the third quarter. It wasn’t “max contract” brilliant. But with a plus-13 plus/minus rating heading into the final stanza, Friday was a baby step in the right direction for the kid. Or three.
