The Miami Heat did not have much to go their way in the first half of Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals. The Heat shot a lowly 37.5 percent from the field in the opening half against the Denver Nuggets, and they hit on a mere four 3-point shot attempts.
The Heat showed signs of life in the second half of the contest. They relied on ball screens to get open 3-point looks for the likes of Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson. Miami shot a promising 40.9 percent from beyond the arc in the latter half of Game 1, but it was not enough to complete a comeback win against Denver.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green took a close look at the Heat’s shooting woes in Game 1, and he believes that they should regularly rely on their ball-screen offense for the remainder of the series.
“I think Miami has to get more ball screens,” Green said during a recent episode of The Volume’s “The Draymond Green Show.”
“When they were in ball screens, whether it was Kyle Lowry, whether it was Gabe Vincent, I thought they did a really good job in playing out of the ball screens. They're going to have to get more ball screens involved in order to just get into the teeth of Denver's defense a bit. They also got a lot of open looks off the ball screens, and that's when the threes start falling because the threes were not falling for Miami, then they start playing out of ball screens. … Their ball screen offense was really good, and I will expect to see more of that.”
The Heat shot 33.3 percent from 3-point land in Game 1. In the big picture, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra still has much confidence in the team’s array of 3-point shooters.
“In terms of the shooters, that's pretty simple,” Spoelstra said during a press conference ahead of Game 2. “Let it fly. Ignite. Once they see two go down, it could be three, it could turn into six just like that.
“As long as we are getting those clean looks, that's what matters.”
Game 2 of this series is set for Sunday from the Ball Arena.
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