In the immediate aftermath of the Miami Heat’s 111-108, Game 2 victory over the Denver Nuggets, much of the discourse fixated on the idea that Miami successfully turned Nikola Jokic into a scorer, evidenced by his playoff-low four assists and the Heat’s win. Despite this narrative, Miami still directed considerable defensive attention his way and doubled him occasionally, on and off the ball.
At least from my vantage point, where the Heat really lasered in was against Jamal Murray, who tallied 26 points (11-for-22 shooting) and 10 assists during Denver’s Game 1 triumph. On Sunday, the star point guard had 18 points and 10 assists, but posted his third-lowest usage rate of the playoffs at 24.4 percent, a notable decline from 30.3 percent in Game 1.
Much of that usage downgrade stemmed from Miami’s defensive adjustments. It started Caleb Martin and assigned Gabe Vincent to Murray in Game 1, but swapped Kevin Love in place of Martin, moved Vincent onto Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and stuck Jimmy Butler onto the Canadian marksman for Game 2.
Vincent is a good defender, but Murray leveraged his size and strength advantage into pull-ups and easily discernible passing windows — usually to Jokic — throughout Game 1. Putting Butler on Murray gave the Heat someone with the frame to dissuade his long-range looks and close down space from midrange, a dynamic Vincent couldn’t emulate. When Butler rested, other rangy, defensively inclined wings in Martin and Haywood Highsmith guarded Murray. All three of them picked up Murray before half-court on numerous possessions to complicate matters. The Heat also rarely crashed the offensive glass and promptly organized their half-court defense to avoid cross-matches for Murray, similar to their approach against Jaylen Brown last round.
Butler spent the most time on Murray. His blend of size, discipline, and body control corralled Murray on and off the ball. Slithering around screens, closing out off the catch, and pairing with Bam Adebayo in pick-and-rolls, Butler hounded his opponent. The free-flowing vibes of Game 1 were absent for Murray’s laborious Game 2. Butler may still be enduring a cold spell as a scorer, but his defense was tremendous on Sunday evening. (This also, for the record, applies to his playmaking.)
Slowing stars is about infringing on their comfort. Murray is comfortable against Vincent. He wasn’t against Butler and Martin in Game 2.
Murray is an adept off-the-bounce shooter beyond the arc, yet he typically loves to build out his scoring profile from the midrange. When he can saunter into and drain a few intermediate pull-ups, the likelihood that he gets scorching hot skyrockets. When he can’t, the offense becomes more of a Plan B grind. Miami’s solution to prevent one of those torrid nights was to send strong-side help around the elbows. Shrink his open real estate in the midrange. Don’t empower him to pound a couple dribbles and rise for a 15-footer.
When he piloted pick-and-rolls with Jokic, Adebayo was typically playing at or near the level of the screen and aimed to eliminate those pocket pass windows. Murray is a good passer, but his best, most routine quality in that regard is the systematic, inevitable nature of his deliveries to Jokic; he’s almost always either feeding the big fella or wiggling into an open shot himself. The Heat negated that and forced reads elsewhere as he operated downhill.
During zone defense reps, they maintained similar principles on Murray. They crowded his catches and intruded on his driving lanes to funnel offense somewhere besides seamless midrange touches for him.
Miami’s margin for error against him is small. If he and the Nuggets did fashion favorable matchups or spacing arrangements, Murray excelled. When the Heat didn’t drift up from the strong-side corner or he brought Vincent into the on-ball assignment, the offense hummed. Basically, when he encountered ample space, regardless of how it arose, he made Miami pay.
I expect Denver to respond. Michael Malone and co.’s adjustments have been shrewd all playoffs. The offense is multifaceted. Murray is multifaceted. The Heat are a switch-heavy team guarding an offense rich with shooting and creativity. More concerted efforts to remove Butler from the action via screens could or should be incorporated.
Something like this, where Michael Porter Jr. sets a quick pick and flows into a vacant corner, could prove quite useful. Because of his movement shooting and steadfast trigger, Miami probably can’t show and recover on that in time to influence him.
Obviously, the Heat are not going to switch Vincent onto Jokic much. Above, they presumably switched to dissuade a Murray pull-up triple, given the time and score. But Vincent at the point-of-attack and Butler glued to a preeminent floor-spacer, rather than vice versa, are circumstances the Nuggets will revel in, as they did for an easy score late in Game 2.
Adebayo’s intersection of length, mobility, and agility in ball-screens posed trouble for Murray. I wonder if Denver deploys Gordon, who’s predominantly being defended by Love, as a screen-and-roll valve more in Game 3. Not only would that thrust Love into tenuous defensive contexts, ball-screen coverage, and movement in space, it would take him away from his beneficial role as an interior helper, where he shined in Game 2.
Initiating pick-and-rolls higher up to give Murray more time to identify swing passes to accomplished corner shooters (Porter, Caldwell-Pope) as Miami continues bringing strong-side help could exploit that brazen tactic as well. Let Murray curl around screens well before someone like Butler or Vincent awaits him. Stretch out the distance helpers have to travel between their man and Murray commandeering the action.
Trying to better insulate him defensively with shows or pre-switches might be another beneficial gambit. The Heat ran him through a ton of pick-and-rolls to exploit his insufficient screen navigation. Whether it was communication, winding around screens or closing out, he was quite poor defensively and Miami targeted him, maybe as both a means of generating profitable offense and wearing him down for his own offensive ventures.
Jokic is the most unstoppable player in the NBA. There is no scheme to contain him. Murray, while an excellent complementary star, does present avenues for defenses to quiet him. The Heat showcased some of them in Game 2, which proved less about the game-plan on Jokic and far more about the game-plan on Murray. While the separators for Miami overwhelmingly resided in its bountiful offense and Denver’s wretched defense, its tweaks against Murray were relevant and impactful. If the conversation is going to revolve around the Heat’s defense, it should start and progress from there.