Jokic, Canada’s Murray lead Nuggets past Heat in Game 1 of NBA Finals | CBC Sports

Nikola Jokic got a triple-double in his NBA Finals debut, Jamal Murray scored 26 points and the Denver Nuggets had little trouble with the cold-shooting Miami Heat on the way to a 104-93 win in Game 1 on Thursday night.

Bam Adebayo finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds for Miami, which shot 41 per cent for the game — 33 per cent from three-point range. Gabe Vincent scored 19, Haywood Highsmith had 18 and Jimmy Butler added 13 for the visiting Heat.

Game 2 is in Denver on Sunday night.

Miami opened the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run, cutting an 84-63 deficit to start the final period down to 84-74. The Heat actually got within nine on a three-pointer by Highsmith with 2:34 left, but no closer and there wasn’t any doubt, either.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone gave his team a pop quiz in shootaround Thursday morning, peppering them with questions about the game plan and what had to be done in the most important game to date in franchise history.

They had all the answers then. Had them all at game time, too. They were the team with minimal NBA Finals experience, only two players having been to the title round before, and yet they looked right at home before the home crowd in Game 1.

Jokic became the second player in the last 25 years — LeBron James was the other, in 2017 — to have 10 assists by halftime of a finals game. He had 10 points and 10 assists by the break, and Denver was up 59-42 after the first two quarters.

That wasn’t good for Miami. Nor was this: The Nuggets were in full control and Jokic had taken only three shots.

And this part was worse: The Heat just couldn’t shoot. At all. Or at least, not until Denver was too far ahead to catch. Max Strus was 0 for 10 through three quarters, zero for nine on three-pointers. Caleb Martin — who narrowly missed out on winning the MVP award of the Eastern Conference finals — was one for seven.