The Heat were 6-for-9 on corner 3s in Game 2, just the 4th time in the Nuggets’ last 62 games that they’ve allowed more than five corner 3s.

In Game 2 of the NBA finals, the Miami Heat allowed 108 points on just 87 possessions, their third-worst defensive performance of the playoffs. The Heat had lost the two games that their opponent scored more efficiently by double-digits.

But they won Game 2 by three, pulling off another fourth-quarter comeback. Over their 20 playoff games, the Heat have been outscored in the first, second and third quarters, but are a plus-90 in the fourth. And they now have four playoff wins (second most in the 27 years for which we have play-by-play data) in games they trailed by at least eight points in the final period.

Over the 20 games, the bigger difference between the first-through-third-quarter Heat and the fourth-quarter Heat has been on defense …

Heat efficiency by quarter, 2023 playoffs

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

But Game 2 was all about offense. The Heat scored 111 points on just 86 offensive possessions, including 36 on 20* in that incredible fourth quarter.

* They made only 19 trips down the floor, but the final second of Game 2, after Caleb Martin rebounded Jamal Murray’s shot for the tie, counted as a possession in the official numbers.

The Heat shot 17-for-35 (48.6%) from 3-point range on Sunday and have now outscored the Nuggets by 35 points from 3-point range in the series. It’s a make-or-miss league and the Heat have worked hard to get their 3-point looks. They have really been moving the ball. But the Nuggets have also helped them by just not being very sharp defensively.

Here’s a bit of film on how Miami made (at least) 17 3s for just the eighth time this season (104 total games)…

1. Caught unawares

The Heat’s first 3-pointer of Game 2 came on their second possession, via a relatively simple out-of-bounds play. Max Strus inbounded the ball over the top to Bam Adebayo above the free throw line, then curled off two screens to a left-wing 3.

The issues for the Nuggets started with Jamal Murray, who seemed to be unaware that his man (Gabe Vincent) was setting the first screen. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got caught in both screens, Murray wasn’t in position to switch the first one, and Michael Porter Jr. was late to switch out after the second one…

2. Switch confusion

Two minutes later, Strus got his second 3, via an empty corner pick-and-pop where he set a screen for Vincent. Because it was a small-small screen, it should have been a simple switch for the Nuggets. But while Caldwell-Pope switched onto Vincent, Porter stayed there, and Strus was wide open when he popped to the corner…

Later in the first quarter, Strus set an empty-corner screen for Jimmy Butler. Murray switched it, but Aaron Gordon stayed with Butler for just a beat, and Strus got another corner 3.

The Heat were 6-for-9 on corner 3s in Game 2, just the fourth time in the Nuggets’ last 62 games (the first time since their Game 4 loss in the first round) that they’ve allowed more than five corner 3s.

“We were by far our least disciplined game of these 16 or 17 playoff games,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after Game 2. “So many breakdowns. They exploited every one of our breakdowns and scored.”

3. Rebounding 101

The Nuggets out-rebounded the Heat in Game 2. But every possession counts, and another Miami 3 came early in the second quarter when Haywood Highsmith came from the weak-side corner to grab an offensive board. Gordon didn’t get a body on him, and the ball eventually found Vincent on the right wing…

The Heat had just 11 second-chance points in Game 2, with nine of those 11 coming from beyond the arc.

4. 19 seconds of good defense is not enough

The first play of the fourth quarter started as a good defensive possession for the Nuggets. Christian Braun did a nice job of hedging a Duncan Robinson back-screen for Adebayo, closing out on Robinson, and then chasing him over a hand-off…

But an Adebayo screen dislodged Murray and a Vincent drive got the Denver defense scrambled. Murray was in decent position to contest a Robinson 3, but he overreacted to Robinson’s pump fake, allowing the Miami sharpshooter to step into another open look …

According to Second Spectrum tracking, 27 of the Heat’s 78 field goal attempts, an abnormally high 35%, came in the last seven seconds of the shot clock on Sunday. But after shooting 3-for-17 in the last seven seconds of the clock in Game 1, they were 13-for-27 (including 7-for-16 from 3-point range) in Game 2.

5. Same play, two breakdowns

That Robinson 3-pointer was followed by a possession where he scored five points. So the Nuggets were on high alert when the Heat ran a “delay” action on their third trip in the fourth quarter. With Adebayo handling the ball up top, Vincent set a screen for Robinson out of the left corner.

Reading the defense (Braun trailing him), Robinson cut into the paint instead of heading toward a hand-off from Adebayo. That pulled in Bruce Brown, who didn’t want to give up a layup. Braun tried to peel off, but it was too late, and the Heat had another wide-open corner 3…

The Heat ran the same exact action on the next possession. This time, Brown didn’t switch and Robinson got the layup with Jeff Green arriving a little too late from the weak side.

This was surely a tough film session for the Western Conference champs to endure. They lost this game by just three points, having made a lot of mistakes. But the Nuggets didn’t necessarily get here with defense. They ranked 15th on that end of the floor in the regular season, the sixth lowest ranking for any team that’s reached the Finals in the 27 years for which we have play-by-play data.

Only one of the other seven teams that have made the Finals after ranking lower than 12th defensively in the regular season has won the championship. That was the 2000-01 Lakers, who were the defending champs and flipped the switch defensively in the playoffs.

With the series moving to Miami for Game 3 on Wednesday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), the Nuggets will have to find a switch themselves.

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