Numbers Game: 5 stats to know from Game 3 of NBA Finals
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray become the 1st teammates in NBA history to both record 30-point triple-doubles in the same game.
The Denver Nuggets are back in control of the NBA Finals thanks to a pair of brilliant performances from Nikola Jokic (32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists) and Jamal Murray (34, 10 and 10). After an ugly first quarter, the Nuggets’ offense picked up steam in the second and third, and the Western Conference champs cruised to a 109-94 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 3 on Wednesday.
Here are five numbers to know from a game that has Denver just two wins from its first NBA championship:
60-34 — The Nuggets outscored the Heat 60-34 in the paint.
That’s tied for Denver’s third best paint differential of the season (100 total games) and tied for the Heat’s fourth worst paint differential of the season (105 total games). And this wasn’t about the Nuggets attacking more. They attempted only two more field goals in the paint (48) than the Heat (46).
But the Heat’s 17-for-46 (37.0%) shooting in the paint was tied for the seventh worst shooting performance in the paint for any team in any game this season. It was the second worst for any team in the playoffs, with the only worse performance being the Heat’s own 16-for-52 (30.8%) in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
On Wednesday, Bam Adebayo was just 5-for-16 in the paint, while Jimmy Butler was just 6-for-16. The Nuggets suffered some more defensive breakdowns on the perimeter, but they protected the basket about as well as they possibly could.
For the third time in this series, the Heat outscored the Nuggets by at least 15 points from 3-point range, with Denver’s five 3s (on 18 attempts) being tied for their third fewest of the season. Mid-range scoring was even (14-14), but the Nuggets were a +26 in the paint and a +7 from the free throw line.
The Nuggets were one of just three teams with multiple wins (they were 2-3) in the regular season when they made five or fewer 3-pointers. Now they have a Finals win to go with those other two.
Denver outrebounded Miami 65-41, and points in the paint were a lopsided 60-34.
4 — The Heat had just four turnovers in Game 3.
That’s their lowest total of the season and the fewest committed against the Nuggets this season. This was just the 13th time this season that any team had fewer than five turnovers in a game. When you outscore your opponent by 18 points from 3-point range and commit 10 fewer turnovers, you should win. But see above.
Teams are now 9-4 when they’ve committed fewer than five turnovers this season.
42 — The Nuggets set 42 ball-screens for Murray.
That was tied for the third most they’ve set for their point guard all season, according to Second Spectrum tracking. It was three off a high of 45 in Game 4 of the conference semis at Phoenix and nine more than the Nuggets set for Murray in Games 1 (33) or 2 (31).
After scoring just 18 points in Game 2, Murray had a huge night. His biggest shot came midway through the second quarter, when the Heat had taken a four-point lead with a 13-4 run. The Nuggets had nothing going late in the clock, but Murray hit a step-back 3 over Adebayo, starting an 8-0 run that righted the ship for Denver.
Of the 42 ball-screens for Murray in Game 3, 32 of them were set by Jokic. The Nuggets scored just a point per chance on those Murray-Jokic pick-and-rolls (they’re at 1.095 points per chance for the season), but that was plenty good enough.
Jamal Murray scores 34 points and becomes the 1st player since Magic Johnson in 1991 with 10 assists in 3 consecutive Finals games.
10-0 — The Nuggets are 10-0 in the playoffs when they’ve allowed fewer than 114 points per 100 possessions.
That mark (114.0) is right around the league average (114.1) and a little more than the Nuggets allowed (113.5) in the regular season, when they ranked 15th defensively. This is a terrific offensive team that is going to score rather efficiently on most nights, even against a defense like that of the Heat. If the Nuggets can just defend at a slightly-better-than-average level, they can win a championship.
43:35 — Jokic played 43:35 in Game 3.
Even though the Nuggets led by double-digits for almost all of the final 19 minutes of this game, the two-time MVP registered his third highest minutes total of the season. Denver got a great performance from rookie Christian Braun off the bench and sixth man Bruce Brown played terrific defense, but the Nuggets are still lacking a reliable back up for Jokic. Jeff Green’s defense on this night was not good.
Murray, meanwhile, played 44:35, his highest minutes total of the season. The Nuggets were all-in on this win and there obviously shouldn’t be any holding back at this time of year.
Of course, it’s worth noting that there’s only one single-day break in this series, and it’s right now. Game 4 is Friday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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