2. Pick Your Jokic Poison
The Heat’s defensive strategy against the Nuggets showed all the signs of a team trying to figure out which poison pill would take them out the slowest. With Miami choosing to take the full dose of everything authored by Nikola Jokic. The result was a 27-point, 10 rebound, 14 assist game to follow in the footsteps of Jason Kidd with an NBA Finals debuting triple-double.
So, should the Heat treat Jokic like Kidd? Meaning, would it be more beneficial to let the center get his in order to disrupt Denver’s flow?
For instance, Jokic is more than capable of going for 50-plus points. Nevertheless, he cannot be allowed to score, board and get others into a rhythm. Double doubles are survivable but assists leading to triple-doubles will always result in a Heat loss.
If Jokic is allowed to go off and just score, his passing capabilities are not being utilized to rope teammates into a flow. Hopefully, for the Miami, forcing Denver’s others to press to get their own. Because everything else is an uphill battle if all the Nuggets are getting involved.
The only way around that team effort includes less double teams on Jokic, more fighting over the pick-and-roll instead of hedging and eliminating the switches that leave Gabe Vincent mismatched against oversized wings.
A defensive shift will not stop Jokic but will be the only hope to neutralize the big man from doing it all.