Heat’s historic and improbable playoff run ends with Game 5 loss. Nuggets are NBA champions

The Miami Heat’s playoff run was historic, but not historic enough.

After the Heat became the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals, the Heat couldn’t become the first No. 8 seed to win the NBA championship. This season’s Larry O’Brien Trophy instead belongs to the Denver Nuggets.

The Heat’s improbable and magical postseason ride as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed ended two months later than most expected with a 94-89 loss to the Nuggets in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night. With the victory, the Nuggets won the best-of-7 series 4-1 and clinched their first NBA championship in franchise history.

“I’ll speak for everybody in our locker room and the organization,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the season-ending defeat. “Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets organization. They are a class act and they are one hell of a basketball team. One hell of a basketball team that we couldn’t really find obviously enough solutions to be able to get us over the top.”

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The Heat led by as many as 10 points in the first half and by one point entering the fourth quarter of Game 5, but could not survive the fourth quarter with its season on the line.

It was a defensive slugfest, with both offenses struggling. But the Nuggets’ offense did just enough down the stretch to complete the comeback.

The Nuggets shot just 43.9 percent from the field and 3 of 23 (13 percent) from three-point range and committed 12 turnovers through the first three quarters.

Unfortunately for the Heat, that uncharacteristic inefficient and sloppy play from the Nuggets didn’t spill into the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets’ elite offense came alive late in the game, shooting 9 of 18 (50 percent) from the field and 2 of 5 (40 percent) from three-point range while committing just three turnovers in the fourth quarter on their way to the championship-clinching win.

And unfortunately for the Heat, it struggled to generate efficient offense in the fourth quarter. Miami shot just 5 of 21 (23.8 percent) from the field in the final period and didn’t score for more than five minutes from 9:38 to play until 4:29 to play.

With the Heat unable to score, the Nuggets pulled ahead by seven points with 4:06 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But star Jimmy Butler had some fight left in him, making one last push to try to keep the Heat’s season alive.

Butler made a three-pointer to cut the deficit to four with 3:47 left and scored 13 consecutive points for Miami to lead a 13-5 run and put the Heat ahead by one point with 1:58 to play.

That’s when the Nuggets closed the game on a 6-0 run to end the Heat’s season.

“Those last three or four minutes felt like a scene out of a movie,” Spoelstra said. “Two teams in the center of the ring throwing haymaker after haymaker, and it’s not necessarily shot making. It’s the efforts. Guys were staggering around because both teams were playing and competing so hard. That’s what this league should be about.”

Trailing by three points with 24.7 seconds remaining, the Heat still had an opportunity to tie the score. But Butler missed a three-pointer with 17.1 seconds to play, forcing Miami to intentionally foul to preserve the clock.

Nuggets guard Bruce Brown made both free throws to extend the lead to five and the Heat never recovered.

Before Butler’s 13-point explosion late in the game, he was in the middle of a rough shooting night. He totaled just eight points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field in the first three quarters, but still finished with a team-high 21 points on 5-of-18 shooting from the field.

Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo contributed 20 points and 12 rebounds.

The Heat shot just 34.4 percent from the field and 9 of 35 (25.7 percent) from three-point range in the season-ending loss. After shooting an NBA-best 39 percent from beyond the arc in the first three rounds of the playoffs, the Heat shot just 30.6 percent on threes in its four losses during the Finals.

“We just missed shots. That’s what this league is about,” Butler said. “We make two or three more shots, that’s what it’s been for us all year long. I think we did enough to win. You guard well. We’re still in position to win.”

As usual, the Nuggets were led by two-time MVP center Nikola Jokic on Monday. He closed Game 5 with 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field, 16 rebounds and four assists.

Jovic was named NBA Finals MVP, averaging 30.2 points, 14 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game while shooting 58.3 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three-point range in the five-game series.

No other Nuggets player finished Game 5 with more than 16 points.

Heat guard Tyler Herro was in uniform and available to play on Monday for the first time since breaking his right hand in the opening game of the Heat’s playoff run on April 16. But Herro did not get in the game, with Spoelstra calling his decision to not play him on Monday “a really tough call.”

“That’s the hardest-played, most physical competition you can have, and that would be a tough thing for a guy that’s been out for two months that hasn’t had any kind of ramp up,” Spoelstra added. “But that won’t save me from thinking about that for the next few weeks.”

Monday’s loss also marked the end of Heat icon Udonis Haslem’s NBA career. Haslem is entering retirement after a 20-year NBA career spent entirely with the Heat in his hometown of Miami.

“I don’t think it hits you until it hits you,” Haslem said after the final game of his playing career. “I’m living in every moment until the game was over and then it’s finally over. As I was congratulating the Denver Nuggets, I started to feel it a little bit. Then when you get to the locker room, reality kicks in. But the first thing I just got in my mind is I just don’t have any complaints or regrets, man. I know we didn’t finish it the way we wanted to, but what a hell of a year. I’m just thankful for that.”

Even after its magical run to the NBA Finals, the Heat has some tough roster decisions to make this offseason.

The only players on the Heat’s roster with guaranteed salaries for next season are Butler ($45.2 million), Adebayo ($32.6 million), Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million), Herro ($27 million), Duncan Robinson ($18.2 million), Caleb Martin ($6.8 million) and Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million).

The Heat also holds the No. 18 pick, which it is eligible to trade, in the June 22 draft.

For now, Heat players and coaches will think about what could have been in the Finals while also appreciating the historic playoff run they went on.

“There’s no regret from our side,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody, staff, player alike in the locker room put themselves out there and put themselves into the team, whatever was best for the team. And the tough pill to swallow is it just wasn’t good enough. We ran up against a team that was just better than us in this series.”