MIAMI — The heat of Miami have struggled against some of the NBA’s best teams this season, and they are on a three-game losing streak.
This seems like the perfect time to take on the reigning NBA champions, who beat Miami in the Finals last year.
Miami (35-29), eighth in the Eastern Conference, faces Denver (45-20), second in the Western Conference and on a three-game winning streak, at the Kaseya Center on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the first match between the southern teams of Florida since last year’s NBA Finals.
“What I learned about the team (from an earlier loss to Denver) is that we have great connectivity,” rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “Unfortunately, we lost that game, but we know that we are close to overcoming this obstacle. I think that’s the one thing we’ve learned, especially after these last few weeks, is that we’re close to overcoming this obstacle. … We have great guys, we have great continuity. In times like this, instead of drifting apart, we actually grow closer.
The Heat battled against the best competition in the NBA this season. They are 0-3 against the Celtics, 0-2 against the Clippers, 0-2 against the Timberwolves, 0-2 against the Thunder, 1-1 against the Cavaliers and 1-2 against the Bucks.
Miami and Denver faced off earlier this season, with the Nuggets winning 103-97 in Denver on February 29.
“It’s a good team,” Jaquez said. “We have a lot to do to try to slow them down. I thought we did a great job of slowing them down. Offensively, there are some things we could have done better. … I think we will be much better prepared this time.
The Heat will be without reinforcements of injured key players, as guard Tyler Herro (foot) and forward Kevin Love (heel) remain out for Wednesday’s game.
Denver, meanwhile, is coming off a six-point home win over Toronto on Monday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra credited the Nuggets for being able to take control of games in crucial moments.
“What they know how to do is, in those key moments of games, take control,” Spoelstra said.
“A lot of times it ends up being the end of the quarter, the end of the half or the decisive moments of the second half – the real crucial skirmishes as Pat (Riley) likes to call them. They tend to know how to earn them. That’s usually what championship-caliber teams do, teams that just won the title. They may not play the most consistent basketball throughout the regular season, but in those pockets, they know how to win those moments and, ultimately, that helps them win games, even s ‘They don’t play at that highest level. level that they can reach, that they can reach.
“They can get to that level, and they did that to us in Denver, and we obviously saw that (Monday). Even right before we played them, they had similar games like that where they were down and then they just turned it around and they were totally in control in the second half.
