NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 7, 2023

Aaron Gordon

Christian Braun

Denver Nuggets

Game 3: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 109, Miami Heat 94

Denver Nuggets 109, Miami Heat 94

Q. That's the first 30-point triple-double for teammates in NBA history, I believe. How would you guys describe the performance that Joker and Jamal put on tonight?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: I would say that it's what they do every game. They make the right play. They didn't try to force anything. That's what we expect from them, and they make everything easier on us. That's what they do every game and they make the right plays, and they didn't force anything.

AARON GORDON: It's greatness, man. It's greatness. That's a dynamic duo right there. Like CB said, they make the right play, they do what the game is asking of them, they take what the game is giving them, and that's the type of game that we kind of expect from them.

Q. What told you in the last 48 hours that not only you would get this kind of effort from your best two players but the overall team that you were going to respond this way after what happened in Game 2?

AARON GORDON: We're a resilient group. We're a very prideful group. We don't like how we played in Game 2. It was an opportunity to bounce back and just hold ourselves accountable and play to the standard that we've been playing all year long.

Q. Christian, you had 15 points tonight and that matches your total from the previous seven games combined. Coming in you were killing it on baseline cuts. How do you stay focused and active and to be ready whenever your coach calls your name?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Those guys makes it really easy. Playing with those guys, they make the right play every time. My job is just to be ready when my name is called.

Playing with Nikola, playing with Jamal, whoever it is, just got to be ready for the ball, and today found me in some pretty easy spots. Just staying ready, and it's the NBA Finals, so if your name is called, you know you've got to be ready.

Q. Aaron, how important was your guys' rebounding advantage just dominating inside against these guys?

AARON GORDON: It's important. When we rebound like that, it's usually a direct correlation to a dub [win]. We've got to keep eating the glass, continue to rebound on both sides of the floor.

Q. Last game Jimmy Butler got a few instances where attacking mismatches and your defense collapsed and they got open threes. What did you do differently today because they really went matchup hunting, but didn't really find anything out of those Butler drives?

AARON GORDON: I think we were over-helping on that. We call it a hes [hesitation] dribble. You call it Gretzky, like Wayne? For sure.

We were just over-helping. He was getting under the basket and we were overreacting, and when we would overreact he would spread the ball out to shooters. Just got to stay home and give the reasonable, respectable amount of help.

Q. Christian, Mike said that he felt you were oozing confidence coming into tonight's game. What was it that made him think that, and how much did that have to do with you being able to defend tonight, even against Jimmy?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, the guys trusted me all year, so when I get in the game, I just try to defend and do the little things, obviously make it easier on me. Like I said, my job is not very hard; I've just got to come in, play with energy. And they find me on the right spots on offense and the defense just gives effort.

So those guys have trusted me all year and put me in the right spots and my job is to deliver.

Q. Aaron, so far this series has been a chess game where you guys struck first, Miami adjusted, came back. Now you guys strike back. Obviously, the momentum now swings to Miami for them to adjust and strike back. How do you prevent that and how do you foresee what they're going to do and adapt to that in the coming game?

AARON GORDON: Well, we watch this game, we break it down. We have a really, really great coaching staff, so we leave it up to them to analyze the game and break it down and come back to us with a game plan.

Essentially we just want to play better. We want to turn up. We don't want stay the same and let them turn up. We want to be the aggressors and yeah, turn up our level of play and be more disciplined, execute better, and just overall be better.

Q. Aaron, you've been around a little while now. How many rookies like Christian could have stepped up, energized the team and even changed the course of such a big game?

AARON GORDON: Man, it's rare. He's a very rare rookie, other than myself. I wouldn't be able to think of anybody else. (Smiling).

No, that's a rare rookie right here. From day one he's been on top of it. This is a real winner right here. I say that because he's always in the right spot. He's in the right place at the right time, and he's been doing that all year, he's been doing that from day one, and nothing changes. He's in the right place at the right time on the biggest stage, and now you guys are getting to see it.

Q. What changed tonight? What do you think was the key for the team today? What was the difference from the last game?

AARON GORDON: I really think it was our execution on defense and offense but mostly the discipline, the game plan discipline on defense. I think we had far too many breakdowns in Game 2, and I think we had less breakdowns this game.

Q. Christian, what is it you might be able to learn from Aaron in terms of moving off the ball, playing off Nikola and Jamal? You guys seem to play similar games in terms of reading, reacting and feel?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, playing off Nikola, obviously all my buckets tonight were layups, and just playing off of him and playing off of Jamal. So a lot of his buckets come from drop-offs, relocations, whatever it is. So a lot of my buckets did look a lot like Aaron. He's obviously catching lobs and dunking more than I am, but just learning how he moves, obviously I can take a lot from that.

Q. Christian, there's a saying actually of a famous soccer coach in Europe that kids have no fear. How do you get to this? It's astounding in some ways the way you're performing in this series.

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, those guys trust me, so I can't really fail if I go out there and play hard. They don't expect much from me on the offensive end, but expect me to go out there and give effort on defense, rebound, whatever it is, try to get extra possession for those guys to score.

So they trust me, and they put me in the right spots, and all I've got to do is lay a ball in and get a steal. My job is pretty easy, and those guys make me look pretty good.

Q. With about seven minutes to go in the second quarter, Jamal Murray hit a step-back three over Bam Adebayo with I think 2 was on the shot clock and the Heat were on a 5-0 run. How big was that shot in that moment? The crowd was very loud.

AARON GORDON: It was a really big moment. It was a big shot. We need him to step up and take and make those shots. It almost like quieted the crowd and kind of slowed their momentum down a little bit. It was a huge shot.

Jamal is a big-shot maker, big-shot taker. He's an ice cold closer, so we expect that from him.

Q. Michael was in here saying that he felt like Jamal really put a lot of Game 2 on himself, took a lot of the blame on himself for it. Did you see him doing that, and what kind of pressure do you think he put on himself to come out strong today?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: I think Jamal, he expects a lot of himself, and like AG just said, we expect a lot from him. Those are the performances we expect from him.

We know he's going to bounce back, but all of us didn't do what we were supposed to do in the last game. We all felt pressure to come out here and focus and get this win, and Jamal was a big part of it today.

Q. That's the first 30-point triple-double for teammates in NBA history, I believe. How would you guys describe the performance that Joker and Jamal put on tonight?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: I would say that it's what they do every game. They make the right play. They didn't try to force anything. That's what we expect from them, and they make everything easier on us. That's what they do every game and they make the right plays, and they didn't force anything.

AARON GORDON: It's greatness, man. It's greatness. That's a dynamic duo right there. Like CB said, they make the right play, they do what the game is asking of them, they take what the game is giving them, and that's the type of game that we kind of expect from them.

Q. What told you in the last 48 hours that not only you would get this kind of effort from your best two players but the overall team that you were going to respond this way after what happened in Game 2?

AARON GORDON: We're a resilient group. We're a very prideful group. We don't like how we played in Game 2. It was an opportunity to bounce back and just hold ourselves accountable and play to the standard that we've been playing all year long.

Q. Christian, you had 15 points tonight and that matches your total from the previous seven games combined. Coming in you were killing it on baseline cuts. How do you stay focused and active and to be ready whenever your coach calls your name?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Those guys makes it really easy. Playing with those guys, they make the right play every time. My job is just to be ready when my name is called.

Playing with Nikola, playing with Jamal, whoever it is, just got to be ready for the ball, and today found me in some pretty easy spots. Just staying ready, and it's the NBA Finals, so if your name is called, you know you've got to be ready.

Q. Aaron, how important was your guys' rebounding advantage just dominating inside against these guys?

AARON GORDON: It's important. When we rebound like that, it's usually a direct correlation to a W. We've got to keep eating the glass, continue to rebound on both sides of the floor.

Q. Last game Jimmy Butler got a few instances where attacking mismatches and your defense collapsed and they got open threes. What did you do differently today because they really went matchup hunting, but didn't really find anything out of those Butler drives?

AARON GORDON: I think we were over-helping on that. We call it a Hess dribble. You call it Gretzky, like Wayne? For sure.

We were just over-helping. He was getting under the basket and we were overreacting, and when we would overreact he would spread the ball out to shooters. Just got to stay home and give the reasonable, respectable amount of help.

Q. Christian, Mike said that he felt you were oozing confidence coming into tonight's game. What was it that made him think that, and how much did that have to do with you being able to defend tonight, even against Jimmy?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, the guys trusted me all year, so when I get in the game, I just try to defend and do the little things, obviously make it easier on me. Like I said, my job is not very hard; I've just got to come in, play with energy. And they find me on the right spots on offense and the defense just gives effort.

So those guys have trusted me all year and put me in the right spots and my job is to deliver.

Q. Aaron, so far this series has been a chess game where you guys struck first, Miami adjusted, came back. Now you guys strike back. Obviously the momentum now swings to Miami for them to adjust and strike back. How do you prevent that and how do you foresee what they're going to do and adapt to that in the coming game?

AARON GORDON: Well, we watch this game, we break it down. We have a really, really great coaching staff, so we leave it up to them to analyze the game and break it down and come back to us with a game plan.

Essentially we just want to play better. We want to turn up. We don't want stay the same and let them turn up. We want to be the aggressors and yeah, turn up our level of play and be more disciplined, execute better, and just overall be better.

Q. Aaron, you've been around a little while now. How many rookies like Christian could have stepped up, energized the team and even changed the course of such a big game?

AARON GORDON: Man, it's rare. He's a very rare rookie, other than myself. I wouldn't be able to think of anybody else. (Smiling).

No, that's a rare rookie right here. From day one he's been on top of it. This is a real winner right here. I say that because he's always in the right spot. He's in the right place at the right time, and he's been doing that all year, he's been doing that from day one, and nothing changes. He's in the right place at the right time on the biggest stage, and now you guys are getting to see it.

Q. What changed tonight? What do you think was the key for the team today? What was the difference from the last game?

AARON GORDON: I really think it was our execution on defense and offense but mostly the discipline, the game plan discipline on defense. I think we had far too many breakdowns in Game 2, and I think we had less breakdowns this game.

Q. Christian, what is it you might be able to learn from Aaron in terms of moving off the ball, playing off Nikola and Jamal? You guys seem to play similar games in terms of reading, reacting and feel?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, playing off Nikola, obviously all my buckets tonight were lay-ups, and just playing off of him and playing off of Jamal. So a lot of his buckets come from drop-offs, relocations, whatever it is. So a lot of my buckets did look a lot like Aaron. He's obviously catching lobs and dunking more than I am, but just learning how he moves, obviously I can take a lot from that.

Q. Christian, there's a saying actually of a famous soccer coach in Europe that kids have no fear. How do you get to this? It's astounding in some ways the way you're performing in this series.

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: Yeah, those guys trust me, so I can't really fail if I go out there and play hard. They don't expect much from me on the offensive end, but expect me to go out there and give effort on defense, rebound, whatever it is, try to get extra possession for those guys to score.

So they trust me, and they put me in the right spots, and all I've got to do is lay a ball in and get a steal. My job is pretty easy, and those guys make me look pretty good.

Q. With about seven minutes to go in the second quarter, Jamal Murray hit a step-back three over Bam Adebayo with I think 2 was on the shot clock and the Heat were on a 5-0 run. How big was that shot in that moment? The crowd was very loud.

AARON GORDON: It was a really big moment. It was a big shot. We need him to step up and take and make those shots. It almost like quieted the crowd and kind of slowed their momentum down a little bit. It was a huge shot.

Jamal is a big-shot maker, big-shot taker. He's an ice cold closer, so we expect that from him.

Q. Michael was in here saying that he felt like Jamal really put a lot of Game 2 on himself, took a lot of the blame on himself for it. Did you see him doing that, and what kind of pressure do you think he put on himself to come out strong today?

CHRISTIAN BRAUN: I think Jamal, he expects a lot of himself, and like AG just said, we expect a lot from him. Those are the performances we expect from him.

We know he's going to bounce back, but all of us didn't do what we were supposed to do in the last game. We all felt pressure to come out here and focus and get this win, and Jamal was a big part of it today.