In praise of Michael Malone’s Nuggets Culture

[ad_1]

From the opening jump of the 2023 NBA Finals, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was prepared for everything his Miami Heat counterpart would hurl at his team, and Erik Spoelstra will unfurl anything.

For all the discussion about Spoelstra and Heat Culture through the Eastern Conference finals — and a championship with this eighth-seeded squad would make a case for the greatest coaching job in league history — we should pause for a moment to appreciate the environment Malone has cultivated in Denver.

“They’ve built something that is stable, that’s consistent,” Spoelstra said. “You know what they stand for.”

Spoelstra carried his small-ball starting lineup’s success against the Boston Celtics into this series, and Malone punished Miami for it. Given a week’s time to prepare for the Heat, Denver identified Aaron Gordon as an X-factor, since no one but Bam Adebayo can match his athletic force at 6-foot-8, 235 pounds, and the Nuggets mercilessly fed Gordon at the rim against smaller defenders in the opening quarter of Game 1. Four times they went to him, and four times he scored, forcing Spoelstra’s first timeout 5:26 into the series.

Denver never trailed Game 1 after that initial punch, leading by as many as 24 points in a decisive victory, and Spoelstra adjusted to a larger lineup — starting Kevin Love in place of Caleb Martin — for Game 2. The Nuggets took a counterpunch in the first quarter, rode their bench to a 15-pound lead in the second quarter, and then let go of the rope against a team that hits every opponent with a realization it never stops tugging.

When the Heat evened the series, the question was asked: Did they successfully turn Nikola Jokić into a scorer rather than a playmaker? Spoelstra dismissed the notion, and the focus turned to his comments about how that was only the opinion of someone with an “untrained eye,” rather than what his answer revealed about Malone: “That’s not how they play. They have so many different actions that just get you compromised.”

Likewise, Malone recognized that the defeat — a narrow one, by the way, that fell inches short of overtime on a decent Jamal…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-finals-in-praise-of-michael-malones-nuggets-culture-190207880.html?src=rss

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-06-12 19:02:07

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.