NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 9, 2023

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Game 4: Postgame

Denver Nuggets 108, Miami Heat 95

Q. Nikola picks up his fifth foul three minutes into the fourth quarter. He ends up coming back I think at the four-minute mark. Were those the longest five minutes of your life and how did you guys survive them?

MICHAEL MALONE: Guys stepped up. We were up 13 going into the fourth quarter, they start off 8-O and that coincides with Nikola picking up his fifth foul. So they came out aggressively. They have us on our heels, and usually in the regular season when Nikola went out, things kind of went haywire.

But I can say not just tonight but throughout these Playoffs, however many games we've played now, the non-Nikola minutes have gone really well. We called a timeout, we ran a play, ATO, Jamal knocks it down. Really well executed. The unit that was out there, Jamal, Bruce, Jeff, Aaron, and then KCP or Christian, they defended. The fourth quarter we held that team to 22 points, 39 from the field. We outscored them the second half 53-44.

And then Bruce Brown in the fourth quarter was amazing. He had I think 21 points, 11 of those were in the fourth quarter. They were giving Jamal so much attention that let's get Jamal off the ball, let Bruce make some plays. He was aggressive, got to the basket, made shots, and tonight was an impressive performance.

I thought Aaron Gordon was huge all night long. He brought his hardhat tonight and was just a warrior on both ends for us. Nikola, he had another great game. And one of the best stats of the night was Jamal Murray had 12 assists, no turnovers. In a game where he was getting blitzed and bodies thrown at him all night long, did not have one turnover, and that's just remarkable.

Truly a team win. We're not satisfied. We're going home. We know we have a lot of work to do, and we're going to take it one quarter at a time.

Q. Aaron in that second quarter, seemed like your offense was a little stuck in the mud and Aaron scored 15 of his points in the second quarter. What was his impact overall with six assists, as well?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, to your points, 27 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, making threes, getting to the foul line, guarding at a high level. Aaron did it all for us tonight. He really did. We've seen that now in four games in the Finals where Aaron has had moments where he has carried us offensively. He made threes tonight, obviously, which is always a good thing, but I couldn't be more proud of Aaron Gordon and his impact across the board tonight.

Q. You talked before the game that tonight was a must-win. Now with the opportunity to close it out, what's the message to the guys over the next couple of days?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, just understand that we haven't done anything. I told our guys, the first thing I said, we're not celebrating. It's a good win. We've done our job. But we're not celebrating like we've done anything yet. We know we're going to have to go home and turn off the TV, the radio, don't read the papers, don't listen to everybody telling you how great you are because we haven't done a damn thing yet. We have to win another game to be World Champions, and we're going to do that by simply taking it one quarter at a time.

We stay true to our identity, we'll give ourselves a great chance to do that.

Q. You talked about how this was a team effort, especially when Nikola went out. You spent much of the season having Jamal run the second team at times. I know you couldn't have thought ahead that this was a moment where you wanted to prepare Jamal for this, but what did Jamal show you when he was running that unit out there?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I think Jamal regardless of what's going on, he's going to step up. He's going to find a way to impact the game, and the most impressive thing for me was he had 15 points tonight, and he was 5-of-17 from the field. But 12 assists and zero turnovers, and just kind of, all right, they're putting two on me, let me make the right play. He did not get bored with making the right play. He did not say, I'm going to save us and try to carry the team. He just read the defense, made the right play, and trusted. That's a big part of our culture is trusting one another.

I thought Jamal's trusting his teammates tonight was just at such a high level. I'm really proud of his performance, and again, it wasn't just Nikola and Jamal. We're getting really, really big contributions from a lot of players.

The last thing I'll say, I think that's two games in a row, and even the first game that we won, our defense has been playing at a high level. I've got to give our guys so much credit for being locked in, being disciplined. That's three wins now where our defense has held them under 100 points, and the three-point line once again was a huge part of that. Only eight made threes for them tonight, and our guys are locked in. We're focused.

Q. In playoff years past when you have to take Joker out at the end of the third, start of the fourth, you sometimes lamented what happens during the time he's on the bench. What's the confidence you saw in the guys this time when he had to leave the game with fouls, and what was Joker's confidence like on the bench watching those guys?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I can't speak for Joker. What I do know is this: This is four rounds now, Minnesota, Phoenix, [Lakers], and now Miami, where our bench overall has done a really nice job. You know all season long, it was like oh, the non-Nikola minutes, kind of a crapshoot. You're watching the game like this sometimes (shielding eyes).

The Playoffs, our guys have -- we cut our rotation down. We're limiting who we're playing. But the guys that are out there, they're competing, and they're defending. Maybe our offense may not be as beautiful as it is with Nikola, but the five guys that are out there are defending, and that's the key to that group playing well and being able to get back in the game after they started with an 8-0 run themselves.

Guys stepped up, and got to give a huge shout-out to the 18,000 fans at Ball Arena tonight. I remember when I first got to Denver, we couldn't get 18,000 people in that building when we were there, and the fact that there's 18,000 people at Ball Arena tonight supporting this team, a lot of love for those fans. Appreciate the support.

Q. When you guys signed Bruce Brown, did you anticipate him being a guy that you would trust putting the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, much less a Finals game?

MICHAEL MALONE: Can I say that I envisioned him scoring 11 points [in the fourth quarter] on the road in Game 4 of the Finals? I can't say that. But I did envision him being a ball handler, a playmaker. I watched him for the years that I've coached against him, I watched him in the playoff last year against Boston, saw his impact of guarding guys like Tatum and Brown, but his ability to facilitate, play with the ball, play off the ball, make shots.

And the one thing I know about Bruce, I know he went to college down here, but he's not afraid. We got a lot of guys that have a quiet toughness about them, and Bruce Brown is definitely one that embodies that Boston toughness that he brings to the table every night.

Q. How big of a concern was Nikola's ankle? I think he stepped on Max in the first quarter. Also, this is the third time this year you had a game stopped because of a bent rim. Did you have that going through your mind when that happened?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, and Billy Kennedy was at one of those games, so he was laughing at me. We looked at each other like, not again. Thankfully it wasn't a long delay.

I think right after that, I hope the woman is okay. I think they wheeled a lady out tonight, so I hope she's -- I'm not sure what happened there. Hopefully it wasn't a Nuggets fan.

As far as Nikola and the ankle, he's tough, and I could tell that he was fine. He just had to kind of keep it loose and don't allow it to get stiff. But he's resilient, and he's tough.