Heat ready for challenges of Nuggets, Jokic and altitude in NBA Finals

The Miami Heat needed to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament, has opened each of the first three rounds on the road and had to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in front of a crazed Boston crowd just to get to the NBA Finals.

So playing in the thin air of the Mile High City is not about to faze the Heat, even with its last win in Denver coming all the way back in 2016.

“We’re not getting into any of that stuff,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said in a room full of reporters at Wednesday’s media day in Denver on the eve of the start of the NBA Finals. “Our guys are in great shape. They’re ready to compete. If Denver wants to tip this thing off at the top of [Mount] Everest, we’ll do that.

“They’ve also got to come back to Miami. If you want to make it about that, we’ll turn off the air conditioning and they’ve got to play in 90-degree humidity, sap the [energy] out of their legs. This thing is going to be decided between those four lines, and we’ll decide it then.”

The bigger challenge for the Heat is its opponent, the Western Conference’s top-seeded Denver Nuggets. The Heat and Nuggets open the NBA Finals on Thursday at Ball Arena (8:30 p.m., ABC).

The Nuggets have been the best team in this year’s playoffs, according to the metrics. Led by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and star guard Jamal Murray, Denver has posted a league-best 12-3 playoff record on its way to the Finals and holds the league’s top net rating (outscoring teams by eight points per 100 possessions) this postseason.

The Heat isn’t far behind, posting a 12-6 record and the league’s second-best net rating (outscoring teams by 4.6 points per 100 possessions) in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two teams have been able to have sustained success, and they’ve done a great job of building their culture,” Spoelstra said. “[Nuggets coach Michael Malone] and his staff have just done a tremendous job of building a system that fits perfectly around their two top players, and they do all the right things. You’re not going to have any kind of weaknesses or glitches or cracks in a culture or professionalism or anything like that. We feel the same way about our group. I just think it’s set up for great competition.”

Murray added: “I think these are the two last teams remaining, and they have the most chemistry within each other. ... I think they’re really together through the ups and downs. They’re very resilient. Kind of like us in a sense where we’re very resilient.”.

There’s clearly mutual respect between the teams, but Heat players and Nuggets players also nearly came to blows in a heated moment last season.

In November 2021, a scuffle led to a one-game suspension for Jokic after he shoved then-Heat forward Markieff Morris from behind in retaliation for a hard foul. Heat players needed to be restrained by Heat general manager Andy Elisburg from approaching the Nuggets’ locker room following the game, as Morris went on to miss most of that season with a neck injury that resulted from the incident.

Both the Heat and Nuggets were asked about that moment on media day Wednesday and downplayed the story line entering the championship series.

“There’s a lot of, like, stuff about the whole situation that people don’t understand, and I’ll let that stay back there,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “But I don’t think it has too much to do with anything, this thing in the past. It’s high-level competition.”

Malone said last season’s confrontation with the Heat “hasn’t come up in any of my thoughts, discussions, narratives.”

“For us, all we’re worried about is winning Game 1 [Thursday night],” Malone said. “That’s our sole focus. None of the storylines that accompany this series are going to distract us from that focus.”

Much of the Nuggets’ focus will be on finding a way to slow Butler, who has averaged 28.5 points, seven rebounds and 5.7 assists per game while shooting 48.3 percent from the field. Denver forward Aaron Gordon is expected to get the defensive assignment on Butler.

“I think Jimmy could potentially be the most complete player out of those guys,” Gordon said when asked about other stars he has defended during this year’s playoffs, “as far as just the offensive package, defensive package and in between, too. He’s a difficult cover, for sure.”

The Heat’s focus will be on somehow making things tough on Jokic, who has averaging a triple-double with 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists per game in this year’s playoffs while shooting 53.8 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from three-point range. Heat center Bam Adebayo is expected to be Jokic’s primary defender.

“Make him take tough shots, force him into tough shots, and live with the result. That’s the biggest thing for me,” Adebayo said his strategy against Jokic. “I feel like this is one of those series where he becomes very dangerous when you let his teammates get involved, and he can make those incredible passes and end up with 12 assists.”

Whatever happens in the coming weeks, history will be made in this year’s NBA Finals.

The Heat is four wins from becoming the first No. 8 seed and first team that has closed the regular season with a negative point differential to win the NBA championship in league history.

The Nuggets are four wins from winning their first NBA championship in their first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history.

“We have respect for them,” Spoelstra said of the Nuggets. “They have an edge. Mike has an edge. That edge is going to be there for both sides. It’s going to be decided between those four lines.

“We just want to get this started. We have great, great competitors that want to put themselves out there for everybody to see and judge and have no fear about it.”