Basketball On The Internet.

From BOB CRAVEN, Stateside

IT was business as usual for the Denver Nuggets in the first game of the NBA Finals, but that came to an abrupt halt in Game 2. 

With the opening two games played in Denver, the Nuggets continued their 2023 playoff run by downing the cold-shooting Miami heat in Game 1, 104-93.

That was despite not having played for a week and a half, waiting for Miami to dispose of the Boston Celtics in seven games in the Eastern Conference Final.

For Denver, it was led by the usual suspects, Nikola "Joker" Jokic, who was in control and had his usual triple double with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists. 

It was his sixth triple double in the last seven games.  He was very efficient, scoring those 27 points on only 12 shots from the field.  Jamal Murray added 26 points. 

Bam Adebayo led Miami with 26 points and 13 rebounds.  After shooting only six free throws in Game 7 of the Conference Finals, Miami was 2-of-2 from the line in Game 1, setting all time NBA records for least free throws made and attempted in a Finals game.

It was very different in Game 2, as the Heat, despite trailing after the third quarter by six, put away the Nuggets surprisingly easily in the fourth quarter. 

The big difference was they shot well, hitting almost 49 per cent from both the field overall and from 3-point range.  Miami was led by Gabe Vincent with 23 points, and both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo added 21.

Denver's Game 2 was very different from Game 1.  It was basically a showcase for The Joker, who looked very much like the NBA's best player.  He went off for 41 points at 57 per cent and added 11 rebounds and 4 assists, including a spectacular one-handed redirect of a pass to a cutter at the rim near the end of the first half. 

Denver only had three other players in double figures, two of them just barely so.

Game 3 will be in Miami this coming Wednesday - Thursday morning on Australia.

ON June 1 of 1979, the Seattle Supersonics defeated the Washington Bullets in five games to win their only NBA Championship.  I lived in the Washington, DC area at the time and saw two of those games there.

Meanwhile, the WNBA season is off and running and, as anticipated, the two "super teams", the Las Vegas Aces and the NY Liberty, are sprinting to the front (along with the surprising Connecticut Sun). 

Las Vegas is at 5-0 and the Liberty, with added superstar Breanna Stewart, the ex-Seattle Storm great, is at 4-1 after a surprising stumble and loss in their first game.

The Storm has already been reminded twice that they are now a middle-of-the-pack team right now. 

They are 0-4 and lost their opening game to the Aces by 41 points in Las Vegas, then two games later in Seattle, met the Liberty in Stewart's return to Seattle and went down by eight points.

Stewart in her first home game in NY, lit up the place for 45 points in the win, setting both personal and franchise scoring records for a single game.