NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 7, 2023

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Game 3: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 109, Miami Heat 94

Q. Michael, how would you describe what you just saw from Joker and Jamal? And did anything you saw in the prior 48 hours give you any indication that they had that building?

MICHAEL MALONE: I think it's the first time in Finals history or maybe NBA history that two guys have 30, 10 triple-doubles, so that's incredible right there.

Regarding Nikola, nothing he does surprises me ever. This guy has shown time and time again that he's built for these moments. He thrives in these moments, the biggest stage. He did that once again tonight.

I'm really proud of Jamal, and I could tell speaking to him yesterday, being around him the last 48 hours, that he was putting a lot of Game 2 on him, and it wasn't just him. It was me and every one of our players. It was collective.

But that's what champions do. That's what warriors do. They battled back. I felt his presence all day long. Forget the stats for a second. I felt Jamal's presence, his energy, and he was here in the moment, and for him and Nikola to do what they did tonight in a game that we needed to take, regain home-court advantage of the series was special to watch.

But it wasn't just those two. I felt Aaron Gordon 11, 10 and 5, I thought Michael Porter's seven boards and Christian Braun. I have to give Christian a lot of love. I felt his play was fantastic. Did not look like a rookie, aggressive, strong, physical, confident, and his 15 and 4 off the bench in 19 minutes were very, very impactful.

Good win for us, but we did not come down here to get one win.

Q. Considering everything you've seen Nikola and Jamal do but considering also the stage on which this was done, is this the greatest game you've ever seen those two together perform and do this?

MICHAEL MALONE: You know, I've been with Nikola for eight and Jamal for seven years now, and we've had some pretty good moments, but not in the NBA Finals. For those guys to make history the way they did tonight, no one has ever done that. I mean, that's what's really neat about it. You get the win.

I thought our defense was fantastic tonight. You hold that team to 94 points, 37 from the field, only 11 threes, that really helped us out tonight. The defending and rebounding at a high level, but by far their greatest performance as a duo in their seven years together.

Q. As we see the triple-doubles there obviously on the stat sheet, but after your comments about the effort, what's it mean to see those second-chance points and rebounding numbers and those effort kind of stats? What's it mean to you to see those stick out for your team after that?

MICHAEL MALONE: It means that our guys understood Game 2 was not who we are. It's not who we can be, especially at this stage of the season, and they responded like they always do. That's one thing I know about our group: When we don't play well, we own it, and we find a way to be resilient and get back to playing Denver Nugget basketball, and that's what we did tonight.

Q. Christian Braun's performance was excellent tonight. Your thoughts on him.

MICHAEL MALONE: Christian has proved himself all year long, and he was in the rotation end of season. He's been in the rotation throughout these 18 playoff games now, and if you look around, there's not many rookies playing meaningful minutes in the NBA this time of year, and it speaks to Christian's confidence. It speaks to him being a winner. He's won at every level: High school, college, and now he's in the NBA Finals as a rookie in the NBA.

He just has stayed ready the whole year, mentally, physically, emotionally. That kid never gets too high, never gets too low. Very calm, cool and collected young man.

Tonight, man, I could just feel the confidence kind of oozing out of him, the physical aggressive drives, making plays for guys against their zone. It was really fun to watch a young man step up like the way Christian did tonight.

Q. I know you said you haven't been to the NBA Finals with these guys before, but how much does just them having been together for so long, knowing how to handle different defenses that are thrown at them, how much does that play here in a game like this?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I've always felt that Nikola and Jamal Murray are one of the most elite and lethal two-man game combos in the NBA, and we've seen that growing for seven years now and I think it was on full display once again tonight.

A lot of guys play with each other. I think those two guys play for each other and off of each other and they read each other so well. The best part about it is early in the game, Jamal was getting blitzed tonight. He had two guys on him a lot, and he didn't fight it. I think early in the Playoffs there were games where he was getting attention and he was trying to make like the home run play maybe at times, but for him tonight to come off -- I got two guys on me? I'm just going to find Nikola in the pocket or Christian Braun cutting, whatever it may be.

So I was really impressed with Jamal's performance. But those two guys as a two-man combo, they give a lot of people headaches.

Q. You mentioned Christian's confidence. Is that something that he showed up with on day one or have you seen him grow into himself throughout the course of the season?

MICHAEL MALONE: No, he showed up with that. That young man, like I said earlier, when you win three straight high school state championships, when you win a National Championship in which he never came out of the game, played all 40 minutes, he's very confident, and he should be.

We believed in him, we drafted him, and he's everything we hoped for and more, but that confidence is something that his mother, his father, his family, I think he's had from a very early age.

Q. You mentioned how Jamal was getting blitzed tonight. That was happening a lot even with Nikola on the floor. Do you recall that happening often, a team sending a double at Jamal even with Joker on the floor?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, usually it's a lot more likely when Nikola sits. I don't know if you guys realized, but Nikola didn't sit in the second half. So when I congratulated him after the game for his 32, 10 and 21 rebound performance, I said, “Maybe we're on to something here.” You may not come out in the second half the rest of the series.

But yeah, Jamal is going to attract so much attention, but usually it's when Nikola's off because if you put two on the ball, Jamal, and he finds Nikola in the pocket, something good is usually going to happen: The mid-range shot where he's almost automatic, Aaron or Jeff working behind the defense or spraying out to a three-point shooter.

That's the type of game that Jamal was having, and he adjusted to how he was being guarded, which is what you need from your starting point guard.

Q. Obviously a ton of individual performances to celebrate, but you came out of both Games 1 and 2 talking about how you guys didn't feel like you played well. Do you feel like you played well tonight as a team?

MICHAEL MALONE: I felt this is by far our best game of the series, most complete game of the series. It's not because of the triple-doubles, or to your point all the individual stats. It's because we held that team to 94 points, 37 from the field, only 11 threes. And to out-rebound somebody by 25 in a Finals game, that's a significant number right there. And it wasn't just Nikola's 21. Aaron gets 10, Jamal gets 10, Michael gets seven, Christian gets four, 28 assists, 60 [points] in the paint. And the fourth quarter defense, only 31 percent from field allowed.

I loved our energy, our urgency, our discipline. I thought we were where we needed to be tonight, and we'll have to be even better come Friday evening.

Q. Back to Jamal, at least three or four times tonight he had kind of silencer answer jumpers. They'd start to get on a little bit of a run, step-back over Bam, pull up in transition, pull up on the mid-range. That kind of sensing the moment of when you need that bucket, is that something Jamal always had since you've had him?

MICHAEL MALONE: It is. His one year at Kentucky, he was a prolific scorer, obviously played off the ball with Tyler Ulis many years ago. And I often laugh when I think of his first two years in Denver he was our backup shooting guard, and now he's getting a triple-double in the NBA Finals.

But yeah, Jamal, he's a guy that thrives, lives and excels in the moment. Never afraid of it. You can't say that for a lot of players. I mean, the regular season guys had really good seasons, but in the Playoffs, on this stage, and Jamal missed our last two post-seasons and he's been dying to get back to this setting, and just go out there and put on the performance that he's putting on. Really proud of him bouncing back from Game 2, as well as all of our players bouncing back the way we did tonight.

Once again, Friday night we know we're going to have to be even better against a very good team in Miami.