Don't expect Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat to set another record for free throw futility as the NBA Finals continue. Given this eye-opening Nikola Jokic defensive stat from Game 1, it should be no surprise they did just that in Monday's dispiriting loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Jokic only defended two shots at the rim in the championship series opener, as noted by Seth Partnow on Twitter, an exceptionally low total. Making that number especially debilitating for the Heat? Denver's conservative defensive scheme left Jokic in drop coverage from start to finish, affording off-dribble attackers a clean path to the paint before meeting the hulking Serbian at the rim.
The Nuggets are plenty comfortable toggling between defensive strategies. They did just that while ousting the Los Angeles Lakers across four games during the Western Conference Finals, beginning by asking Jokic to venture toward the perimeter while defending pick-and-rolls before ultimately stashing him in the paint.
Jokic isn't the defensive sieve he was once made out to be. He has fast, strong hands, long arms and diagnoses the game almost as quickly on that end as he does on the other, where he's one of the best passers in league history. But Jokic is hardly a top-tier rim-protector, a reality Butler seems prepared to exploit come Sunday's Game 2 no matter what Denver does defensively.
“Maybe I gotta be a little more aggressive,” he said after the Heat's Game 1 loss. “I gotta put pressure on the rim. Me with no free throws, that was all on myself. Nobody else. We're gonna correct than next game, but only I can do that.”
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