2023 NBA Finals Game 5 Observations

Here are my observations for Game 4 of the NBA Finals.  In a fairly chaotic rock fight type game where both teams struggled shooting, Denver eked out a 94-89 victory.

 

 

Quarter 1

• I feel like Miami has been awfully aggressive so far for the first few possessions.  That said, I like a lot of Denver’s defense so far
• I’m not surprised that Denver’s first basket came from a transition basket; that’s where their offense is at their best
• That’s insane that Denver already has 4 turnovers within a few minutes
• Well Miami just passed to nobody…
• I like Miami’s defense so far.  They’ve been good with preventing a lot difficult paint shots
• Even though Miami missed at 7:30, I liked their offensive possession.  Denver doubled off a pass which resulted in Jimmy Butler being open; from there, they kept passing to open players and made Denver scrambled a lot
• Now Butler has made it to the line the first today.  I wonder how many times he’ll get there after that
• Denver has absolutely locked down since the initial start.  I thought that if Miami had started hot that they would likely win, but Denver has bucked that trend so far
• I love how Michael Porter Jr. is aggressive with cutting.  It’s easy for a great shooter and scorer to get complacent and coast while struggling, but he’s doing what is needed from him
• The Jeff Green slam!  I’m in awe about the fact that he can dunk with ease still; I jump and my knee is mad at me, and most other players at his age can barely dunk, so that really is insane looking at his athleticism and conditioning
• I like the aggressiveness of going at Nikola Jokic.  After he got into foul trouble yesterday, it makes sense to do that, especially since he isn’t the best rim protector
• I don’t get how Jokic is still able to get so open.  While it was a nice screen, Miami has to be ready for it
• That is a close call on the blocking foul against Kyle Lowry.  I’m not sure if he was moving, but it was close
• I love the alley-oop play from Max Strus to Bam Adebayo.  I think their best bet to do well on offense is to attack the rim
• That’s a tough foul for Strus, number 2 being on a box out call
• That was a bad missed call on Strus’s fastbreak finish.  It got the wrist
• Seeing passes like the one that Jokic made at 3:30 makes me wonder what people who say Jokic is boring are talking about
• Both Jokic and Aaron Gordon now have 2 fouls, which is massive for Miami to exploit this on offense especially
• Now Green is in foul trouble, so DeAndre Jordan is in.  Yikes, Miami should win this game
• Jordan blocking a shot in the NBA Finals is not a sentence I expected to utter this year
• That was a huge play by Porter.  Even though he can’t hit any 3’s this series, he’s been essential in this quarter with his scoring
• Adebayo has been unreal this quarter.  He’s also been more aggressive than usual at the rim, which is rare
• Well, that was quite the quarter.  If Miami is up despite struggling so badly with their shots, I’d be surprised if they lose, unless something drastic happens

Quarter 2

• Well I’m not quite sure what on earth happened on Denver’s first offensive possession of the quarter.  Yikes, that was sloppy
• I like Miami’s defense on Porter’s drive at around 11:00, but I thought Lowry committed a foul prior to knocking it out of bounds
• Neither team is hitting any 3’s, so I wonder how both will adjust.  I think Denver has adjusted by driving, though Miami has made adjustments on a couple plays at least
• Butler appears to be getting a lot of fouls, although the last one with Murray fouling him at 9:46 was a blatant blown call
• I’m not sure why the refs ignored the foul on the inbound pass.  Yes, I say ignored because any capable ref should be able to see a hooked arm no matter what part of the game it is
• I find it kind of funny when Miami is complaining about foul calls this game.  It’s not like Denver has their first 3 options at center in foul trouble early in the game
• Butler just passed up a decent look again.  I’m a little confused about why he doesn’t seem anywhere near as aggressive as normal
• I can’t believe that Denver first let Duncan Robinson get an open 3, then allow an Adebayo offensive rebound, and then allow Robinson to drive in for an easy layup.  I’d be calling a timeout as well, even if Denver ended up with the rebound
• I’m not quite sure what happened with the play where Lowry fell, but I’m not sure it should have been a foul on anyone, so I like the no call.  I could see if it was an offensive foul, but it looked like a natural motion
• Butler again passed up a good look.  He had a mismatch against Jamal Murray in the post, so that’s the kind of look you look for.  Even if he doesn’t get a look from there, someone else has a mismatch; I didn’t love the pass out to a guy who didn’t have a perfect option
• Okay, Lowry’s 3 that he just made out of the timeout was insane.  That was such a difficult shot
• Christian Braun’s resistance to pull back his reach when Lowry was baiting him is extremely impressive and is not something common for someone so young
• Wait, how did it hit Caldwell-Pope on the stop?  It obviously went out on Butler.  That said, nice transition defense by Caldwell-Pope
• I think that Denver should try to not rely on the 3 so much.  Normally it’s a great weapon, but nobody is hitting any today
• Even though it missed, I like seeing Butler go up for the post up against Bruce Brown.  Even though Brown is an incredible defender, Butler has a pretty clear size mismatch
• I’m surprised that Miami hasn’t taken advantage of the pick and roll against Jokic a lot.  While he’s big, he isn’t a good rim protector and looks lost on several switches
• Denver has been bad on free throws as well. I wonder if there’s some exhaustion since several 3’s appear to be hitting the front rim
• Porter’s drives and cuts have been essential for Denver today.  If he wasn’t as aggressive as he was, they’d probably be down by 15-20
• Well, neither team can shoot well, Adebayo is dominating on offense, Denver has multiple people in foul trouble, Porter is Denver’s best scorer, and Lowry looks like Toronto Lowry.  What on earth is going on in this half?  If I had to guess, I would guess Miami wins this game, but I’m so confused now

Quarter 3

• It’s interesting that Miami had a 3 to come out of halftime.  They’ve struggled from 3, so it was an interesting choice
• I wasn’t sure if Jokic would take the shot against Gabe Vincent, but I’m so glad he did since there was such a big mismatch
• Porter, why the hell are you taking a transition 3 when you can’t hit anything this series?
• Murray just had a nice pass, but there have been so many plays that resulted in turnovers because a Miami defender was in the way
• I think Jokic’s tip looked like it was still on the rim (note:  I saw the replay and it was not, though Kevin Love tipped it in)
• I feel safe saying Butler looks exhausted since his shot just looked so flat and the airtime was not there
• Denver is so bad from the line today and they are still in a close game.  Imagine if they were hitting their shots
• Even though Murray’s corner 3 in transition was an amazing play, the shot itself looked a tad flat, which is something to watch as the game goes on
• Even though Denver is great in transition, I like Murray slowing it down since there were 3 defenders in the area already
• I’m at the point where anytime Porter shoots, I’m ready to scream
• I think the refs are just ignoring fouls at the moment.  Gordon was grabbed on the dunk attempt, and Murray obviously got away with a push right after
• I don’t understand why Denver keeps taking transition 3’s.  I don’t understand why teams keep going with something that isn’t working for anybody
• Miami has been also struggling from 3, so I don’t get why they’re taking so many
• That was an amazing defensive play by Vincent.  The fact that he got in the way and forced a jump ball without fouling is something that won’t get the attention it should
• That was a nice job on the follow by Brown.  Not everybody would follow in that situation, and they really needed him to
• How on earth did Porter not lose the ball and make that basket?  Wow, that’s an amazing play
• It seems like Miami has made so many fouls on the boxouts this whole series.  If they don’t call it then it might be worth giving it a shot
• Of course Porter makes the 3 that I audibly say “no” about. 
• If it isn’t clear by now, I hope Denver wins since I know they’re the better team and they’ve
• shown it, I just want this to end
• Wow, I don’t love the look that Lowry just made from deep, but wow, that was smooth
• This game is chaotic, stressful, and kind of fun.  But could both teams please stop taking so many 3’s?

Quarter 4

• I loved Jokic’s floater to start the quarter.  It was an amazing display of offense
• That was a really nice defensive possession prior to the block.  I didn’t love the defense after the block where Caleb Martin got a fairly easy path to the rim
• That was a nice heads up play by Gordon to get the steal in transition
• Lowry appears to be the only player shooting 3’s, as he now has 4.  I can’t say I would have predicted that (not that Lowry is a bad shooter, he’s good, but nobody else is hitting them)
• That was a mature stop by Braun at the attempt to draw the foul.  He really does play older than his age
• Even though it missed, I liked the attempt by Adebayo off the Butler pass.  That said, I’m surprised Butler didn’t take it
• Even though it missed, I loved the attempt that Butler.  It was a great look and would go in more often than not
• Strus had an amazing defensive play in transition against Braun.  That’s a really tough one
• I’m shocked that Butler keeps passing up passes on the drive.  He has been doing that a lot this series.  At this point, if Miami somehow wins the series, I have no idea who should be MVP; it might be Adebayo, though I don’t love it
• While it was a foul, the foul where Caldwell-Pope ran into Adebayo was a bit of bad luck considering he was running with the defender
• The play immediately after the previous note had so much chaos and questionable non-calls that left me so confused
• I was so excited when Jokic went for the alley-oop to Gordon, the timing was just off
• Michael Malone looks as stunned and confused as I do right now.  This is so wild
• I love having Gordon in the high post/key get the pass and then him immediately dish it out to another part of the wing.  It was a minor part of a possession and a play, but I find it effective
• Butler just made back-to-back 3’s, but shot still looks flat with a low leap
• Well I’d be shocked if the foul that was actually a Butler kick doesn’t get overturned
• Okay, I’m shocked.  Butler kicked out, which is not natural.  If that was natural, I would have intentionally done that and ended up at the free throw line a lot more when I played
• Why do they keep giving Porter the ball to take difficult contested shots?  He’s not hitting them outside the paint
• That play by Lowry was an amazing play to kick the ball out when Gordon had the rebound
• I’m surprised that a foul was called on Lowry when they did, since it looked like a clean strip
• Now that Butler has been more aggressive, I was surprised by the kickout to Strus, but it was such a good look
• Geez, that steal by Caldwell-Pope was massive!  It was a little risky, but he timed it perfectly
• I think that Caldwell-Pope making the free throws isn’t the epitome of this game given how poorly they’ve shot from the line
• Even though it was a tough shot, I actually wasn’t too opposed to taking the 3.  It wasn’t a good look given that Butler isn’t a good shooter in recent years, but I didn’t think it was the worst
• I kind of figured Miami would have Lowry get the pass back after the inbound and take the 3; even though it missed, I loved the play
• And that’s the game!  Even though I had no idea what would happen as chaos unfolded, Denver proved that they were the better team in the series.  Once they started playing hard on defense this series, I felt like Denver was unstoppable and was likely the most worthy and adept team to win the Championship.  Congratulations to both Denver and Miami for being finalists, and congratulations to Denver for winning their first ever championship!

What did you think of Game 5 and the entire series?  Let me know in the comments!