A Timeout Available Before Final Play of Game 2 of NBA Finals, But Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone Opted Not To Use It
A Timeout Available Before Final Play of Game 2 of NBA Finals, But Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone Opted Not To Use It – the image is a screen grab. – The coach is under fire, C how ….
A Timeout Available Before Final Play of Game 2 of NBA Finals, But Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone Opted Not To Use It - the image is a screen grab.
A timeout was available before the final play of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, but Nuggets head coach Michael Malone opted not to use it.
After grabbing a defensive rebound with 11.4 seconds left in Game 2 of the NBA Finals and down by three points, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone opted not to utilise one of his team’s two timeouts to set up a last offensive play.
Instead, Malone sent the ball to guard Jamal Murray, who attempted a game-winning 3-pointer that clanked off the back of the rim and gave the Miami Heat a 111-108 victory.
Malone may have made a poor choice, but it wasn’t one he couldn’t defend. He refrained from calling timeout for a very straightforward reason: the Heat would have had more time to organise their defence during the break, which would have given the Nuggets an opportunity to put up a play.
Malone said, “You take a timeout, you let them get set, you let them review whatever play they think that we’re going to run, and there’s a great chance that we don’t get a quality shot like Jamal got,” which was on line and, from where I was standing, seemed like it had a great chance of going in. Furthermore, we’ve witnessed Jamal make similar shots previously.
I agree that there are evenings when we need to call a timeout. On other evenings, “let our guys out for a run,” he said. “But with how well they were guarding in that quarter and how hard it was for us to generate great looks,” the coach said, “I felt in that transition, we were gonna have the best chance to get the look that we wanted.”
The series is now tied at 1 game apiece after the strategy failed.
But Murray and Malone can’t take the blame on their own.
In contrast, Miami’s undrafted foursome of Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Caleb Martin combined for 11 of the Heat’s 17 made three-pointers. The Nuggets’ third postseason loss in which their two-time MVP scored at least 40 points was led by Nikola Jokic’s 41 points.
After winning Game 1 by a score of 104-93, the Nuggets looked unstoppable, but they blew several leads in Game 2 and were never able to recover. Despite holding a 15-point lead at halftime and an 8-point lead with a minute left in the third quarter, Denver could not stave off a furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Heat.
While scoring only 25, the Nuggets allowed 36 points, which is the most they’ve allowed in any quarter of the series so far and the second-fewest they’ve scored in any quarter.
The Western Conference’s best squad has to regroup before heading to Miami for Game 3.
