The way Jimmy Butler was handled by the Denver Nuggets.
We witnessed the Nuggets grab a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. Their defense of Butler, which is also the main plot to watch for in tonight's G
ame 4, was one of the keys to win.
Butler scored 28 points, but they came on 24 shots, and he only had four assists, compared to seven and nine in the two prior games. The amount of assistance that the Nuggets sent at Butler made a significant impact in Game 3.
Aaron Gordon said when asked how Denver's approach altered from Game 2 to Game 3: "We were just over-helping." Butler spread the ball out to shooters when we would overreact because he was getting beneath the hoop and we were doing so. Just have to stay at home and provide the necessary, fair quantity of assistance.
But Game 3 was a very different story. Gordon played Butler's defense less frequently than in the previous two games as a result of the Heat's search for mismatches against smaller defenders like Jamal Murray. Denver stayed the course and simply didn't pitch in as much, des
pite the switches:
Throughout Game 3, this style of defense was utilized often. Occasionally, a second defender for the Nuggets would try to intercept the ball, but nobody ever moved far out of place.
The numbers demonstrated the difference. Butler missed 11 of his 19 drives to the rim in Game 2. According to Second Spectrum, he only passed eight times out of a possible 24 times in Game 3. The Nuggets can live with the outcomes, even though Butler scored 21 more points as a result than he has in the whole series, especially given that Butler's Heat teammates aren't getting easy opportunities to score.
"They watch film. They undoubtedly followed the strategy," Butler said following Game 3. The most important thing for us is to watch the movie and figure out how to get Max [Strus] open once more.
After Game 2, the discussion was on how the Heat made Nikola Jokic a scorer after he only contributed four assists in the Nuggets' defeat. The Heat experienced their own medicine in Game 3. They now have to respond to the entire series.
Written by: Dov Jungries
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