The Miami Heat came into Monday night still looking for a playoff push, and came out with a historical win over the Denver Nuggets.
On a historical night, it took a franchise record in points for the Miami Heat to take down the Denver Nuggets 149-141, in double overtime. Despite once again playing short-handed, still without Hassan Whiteside and Dwyane Wade.
While Miami’s shooting to start off was nothing less than cringe-worthy, the Nuggets game plan was clear: they would pick on Bam Adebayo as much as they could.
It made sense that the Nuggets would go with their bread and butter. Averaging 109 points per game, Denver is a fast-paced team. This not only spelled trouble but became disaster when Miami couldn’t find the bottom of the net.
Denver attacked off of Miami’s missed shots and the transition offense was something the Heat couldn’t keep up with.
Once the offense started to wake up though, it was a game once again. James Johnson in transition found himself under the basket and made a flawless pass to Goran Dragic, to cap off a Heat 14-6 run.
The Heat continued to show off their offensive strength, shooting 58.3 percent in the first quarter.
While Miami kept hitting their shots, so did Denver. But the Nuggets took it further, finding ways to get to the charity stripe to maintain a slim lead.
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Up-tempo Heat?
A fast-paced Heat offense is something no one is accustomed to seeing, but it was a show tonight. Dragic snuck around the defense one last time before the end of the first half, to give the Heat the 64-63 lead.
The tempo might not have slowed down but the scoring started to by both teams. Transition was the name of the game as it was coming down to who would play better defense.
It might not have been the way the Heat normally play, but they were running with success. Efficiency from the field and from downtown showed how impressive Miami’s offense could be.
Yet, the common trend was Denver at the free throw line. And they capitalized on it as much as they could.
With only a few more weeks left in the regular season, there was a playoff atmosphere inside AmericanAirlines Arena. But it may have never been as loud as it was when Kelly Olynyk tremendously blocked Jamal Murray, with less than four minutes remaining.
A controversial no-call with Olynyk trying to take a charge, resulted in a Miami foul, and two free throws for Denver. That gave the Nuggets an 116-115 lead with just 52 seconds left.
Down to the wire
The nail-biter continued as Dragic drew a foul and knocked down his two clutch free throws, to put the Heat up by one.
With the game on the line, Josh Richardson had the ball in his hands. Going baseline the defense collapsed and Richardson couldn’t find the shot he wanted. It would take overtime to decide this one.
After two huge 3’s from Denver, Olynyk took it to the paint to earn the old fashion 3-point play.
Clutch moment after clutch moment, both teams had the answer for each other on the offensive side of the floor.
One overtime wouldn’t do it
In double overtime, it was all about who wanted it more and Miami came out aggressive.
James Johnson had ice water in his veins, knocking down a huge 3 with under 90 seconds remaining. Another clutch dunk soon after by Johnson proved to be too much for Denver.
Next: Miami Heat forward Kelly Olynyk: Then, now and what's to come
An exhausting game came to an end with an 149-141 Miami Heat double overtime victory. The highest scoring game in Heat history moved them into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.