Hero
Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon
Number 50’s night started with an auspicious airball but he turned it around quickly thanks to a heaping dose of bully ball. Gabe Vincent couldn’t guard him. Jimmy Butler wasn’t going to slow him. Caleb Martin? No, sir. Gordon made six of his next seven buckets — all around the rim — as he powered around and through the Miami defense en route to 12 first-quarter points. He finished with 16 points and six rebounds in the Nuggets’ 104-93 victory.
On a night when the Nuggets had several candidates for this distinction, Gordon gets the nod because he ensured, with authority, that Denver’s long layoff did not beget an early period of lethargic play. Just the opposite, in fact.
Zero
Miami wing Caleb Martin
Before the series started, Denver coach Michael Malone posited that Martin could have easily been named the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals. He wasn’t wrong. Martin averaged 19.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in a seven-game vanquishing of second-seeded Boston and delivered his two best scoring games of the series — 25 in Game 2 and 26 in Game 7 — in wins on the Celtics’ home floor.
Describing Martin’s Game 1 as a slow start, though, would be charitable. He didn’t score in 16 first-half minutes, missing all five of his shots, collecting three rebounds and no assists and putting a minus-13 on the board. His first bucket came with 4 minutes, 5 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the Heat trailing by 17.
And while Martin’s quiet night gets the nod here because of his expected influence in this series, fellow Miami starter Max Strus did put up a literal zero. As in zero points on 0-of-10 shooting.
Postcard
Narratives and such
Lest you think the Nuggets planned to put the perceived lack of respect about their place in the Western Conference pantheon over the regular season, their No. 1 seed and their championship bona fides in the rearview mirror for the Finals, the Ball Arena video board played it up early on Thursday night. After the first quarter, a video played about “narratives,” featuring quotes from several national commentators over the course of the playoffs. It ended with Rocky the mascot racing out onto the court with a “Get Loud” flag just before the second quarter began. The crowd obliged uproariously.
Now in uncharted territory for this franchise and this city, Game 1 felt like a basketball celebration but also a statement.
Three more wins and the Nuggets will have the loudest, most emphatic final say.
Quotable
Michael Malone on Michael Porter, Jr.’s defensive level in Game 1: “It’s where it needs to be. I think we’re past the point of praising Mike when he has a good defensive game. He needs to, as does everyone else on our team. This is the NBA Finals. We showed one at halftime where they ran a pick-and-roll for Jimmy Butler, Michael tried to get under, stayed in the play and winds up blocking Jimmy from behind. …
“It can’t be, ‘Look at Michael Porter, he’s doing a great job.’ That is his job.”
Bruce Brown, unsolicited, on Porter’s defensive impact: “Huge shoutout to Mike. I’ve seen a few things about him not being a great defender, but he was great for us tonight. Challenging at the rim, getting blocks and rebounding. Kudos to him.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on Martin and Strus, who went 1-of-17 combined from the floor: “They’re fine. They’re not going to get sick at sea. If they’re shooters, they’re not always gonna be able to make all the shots that you want. Then you have to find different ways to impact the game. Our game is not built just on the 3-point ball. We can win games, we can win series regardless of how the three is going. But we also have ignitable guys. They see a couple go through and all of a sudden it can become an avalanche. One way or another, we just have to find a way to get the job done.”
Malone on letting his team play when Miami cut the lead to nine in the fourth quarter: “I can’t bail them out every time. I called a timeout after the 8-0 run in the third, I called a few in the fourth, but at some point our guys also have to take ownership. If you’re going to win a championship, you need the five guys on the floor to take accountability and makes sure we execute, get the best shot offensively and get stops defensively. To our guys’ credit, they cut (the lead), but we were able to withstand that and end up pulling away.”
Brown on being ready to play after a long layoff: “We were ready, but I was dead in the first, I’m gonna be honest. I was cramping. But, I mean, you’ve got to get used to the altitude every time you come back, so I think we did a pretty good job.”
Malone, right to the point, on Gordon’s early impact: “I felt Aaron Gordon’s play on both ends of the floor in that first half really set the tone.”
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