We are in the “money time” of this Game 2. After Jimmy Butler’s last attempt, Bruce Brown grabs the rebound and there are 13 seconds left to play. Mike Malone then makes big gestures to tell his players to play the action. The Denver coach therefore has no intention of taking a time-out.
A strong choice since a few moments later, Jamal Murray will try to snatch the equalizer with a winning shot, finally missed. So why didn’t you stop the game to draw a system?
“If we take a time-out, we let the opponent get in place, so we give ourselves less chance of getting a quality shot like the one Jamal took”, replies Mike Malone. “Some matches, we can take a time-out, and others, not, we must give the freedom to the players to do the action. »
The Nuggets coach, like Joe Mazzulla, tried a bet with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, thinking that the duo would succeed in dominating the Miami defense. “Given the way they defended in this quarter, we struggled to get good shots, so I felt that in transition we would have the best opportunity to get the shot we wanted to “continues the coach.
After Nikola Jokic screened, the playmaker found himself up against an aggressive Jimmy Butler. The shoot he tries was not easy, but not impossible either according to the main interested party.
“From my point of view, he had a good chance of falling into it. We’ve seen Jamal score such shots before.” recalls Mike Malone. “I have already been seen to register this style of shoot”, confirms the Canadian. “It was a good shot that just didn’t go in. »
