Miami Heat: Nikola Jokic Their Toughest Assignment Yet

Miami Heat: ‘The Joker’ Will Be A Lot To Handle, But They Have To Guard Bam Too

Adebayo will also have plenty of support. The expectation should be for Miami to continue utilizing their enhanced defensive style, providing switches and forcing traps against Jokic, as they’ve shown against other top NBA stars throughout their first nine games.

One exposed gap for Miami last season was their rebounding, but more specifically, not having multiple players on the floor who could rotate and keep larger matchups off the offensive glass. However, the Heat have been amongst the top rebounding teams in the league thus far, methodizing an approach for several players to gang-rebound.

This is where P.J. Tucker’s value shines bright, because he can successfully box out against larger matchups. It’ll be important for Miami to, simply, do their work early and continue making correct reads on the Serbian big man, who’s currently the third-leading rebounder in the league.

• The Heat held Jokic to 17 points on 6-14 shooting back on April 4th, but Miami fell short to Denver, 106-123.

In 12 career games, Jokic has averaged 19.0 points on 51 percent shooting and 41 percent from beyond the arc against the Heat. As they do for most elite players anyway, Miami will throw whoever and whatever they can to make life difficult for the Serbian big man.

The best they can do is deny him in the post and be aware of his next available decisions with the ball. As the Heat will embark on game one of a five game Western Conference road trip on Monday, they’ll continue in Los Angeles against both the Lakers and Clippers on Wednesday and Thursday.

Their final two matchups will be another matchup with the Utah Jazz and then the Oklahoma City Thunder to close the trip — as Miami looks to round out a critical stretch of their season schedule. However, their first test will begin in Denver.

If history serves as any indication, they’d better study up.