The Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets meet Monday for Game 5 of the NBA Finals after Denver cruised to a 108-95 win in Game 4 on Friday to take a 3-1 series lead.
For the Nuggets it was the role players that really stepped when they were needed to help secure that win as Denver won both games in Miami.
Nuggets Forward Aaron Gordon posted a career playoff high 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting, but he wasn’t the only shining star for Denver. G Bruce Brown scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting off the bench.
The duo of Murray and Jokic did not play as well as expected, but they did enough to secure a win. Murray finished with 15 points (5-of-17) and 12 assists while Jokic recorded a 23-point 12-rebound double-double with 5 fouls that limited his minutes slightly.
The story for Miami throughout the playoffs had been the success of their bench and role players, but in Game 4 they failed to show up yet again. G Max Strus and G Gabe Vincent combined for 2 points on 1-for-10 shooting from the floor and 0-7 on 3s, forcing coach Erik Spoelstra to limit their minutes.
The Denver defense held Miami to under 100 points for the 3rd time this series, including the last 2 games. Jimmy Butler scored 25 pts on 9-of-17 shooting and Bam Adebayo scored 20 pts on 8-of-19 shooting.
