No fine line: Heat know it’s going to take more than two free throws against Nuggets in NBA Finals
DENVER — When Haywood Highsmith went to the foul line with 10:54 left in the second period of Thursday night’s 104-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat forward hardly appreciated the significance of the moment.
By game’s end, those would be the Heat’s lone two foul shots, an NBA all-time postseason low.
“I didn’t even realize it was two free throws only, and it was only my two free throws,” Highsmith said after glancing at the final box score. “So that was pretty interesting. I think we were aggressive, but we did shoot a lot of jump shots because we were open.
“It’s weird having two free throws. I’ve never seen that before.”
As he sat alongside Highsmith during their combined postgame media session, Heat center Bam Adebayo was asked how weird, considering he attempted 25 shots without getting to the line.
“I mean, when we got in the locker room and [had] seen the stat sheet, I feel like that we were all shocked that we only had two free throws,” he said.
“But we’re going to watch film tomorrow, get our minds wrapped around it, and I feel like we’ll shoot more in Game 2.”
Further pressed about the Nuggets attempting 20 free throws to the Heat’s two, Adebayo first attempted to turn the tables.
“If I do say something, will you take the fine?” he asked of his questioner.
He then answered diplomatically.
“Like I said, I just feel like we can’t even get into that,” he said, as Highsmith sat alongside and smiled. “You know, we can’t let them dictate the game. I just feel like we took a lot of jump shots, and we missed a lot of them instead of getting to the basket.
“Like I said, we’re going to watch film and get back to the drawing board.”
The Heat entered Game 1 averaging 21 free-throw attempts per game, although they took only six in Monday night’s series-winning road victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Nuggets guard Bruce Brown said the Heat’s low free-throw count was the hoped-for outcome when defending the likes of Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Gabe Vincent.
“Our game plan was trying not to foul,” the University of Miami product said. “We know they’re going to pump fake a lot. Jimmy is great at it. Gabe has been doing it. Bam has been doing it. So just trying to get our hands in the air and jump for everything.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said it was a matter of quality defense.
“I thought our guys did a great job of defending without fouling,” he said.
The upshot? Game 1 took 2 hours and 4 minutes, the quickest NBA Finals game since Game 1 in 1976 and the fifth quickest over the last 50 Finals.
Message received
Malone said his Thursday pregame talk touched on the Heat having won their previous three series openers on the road this postseason.
“That was one of my last messages to the group before our game,” he said. “I reminded our group, if they didn’t know that Miami went into Milwaukee and won Game 1. They went into the Garden in New York City and won Game 1. They won Game 1 up in Boston. So, we did not want them coming in here taking control of the series on our court.”
The theme continued postgame.
“They’re going to come out,” he said of Sunday’s Game 2, “and try to jump all over us and take control of the series and that game early on, and we have to be ready for that.”