The Miami Heat, who won the same quantum of regular-season games this time( 44) as they did five times ago– Tyler Johnson, James Johnson, and Hassan Whiteside were all starters on that platoon– and lost a play-in game against the Atlanta Jingoists on April 11, have answered every mystification they have encountered in the last seven weeks. Their price for knocking off the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference? A tourney with the top seed in the West in the NBA Tests.

The Denver Nuggets, who took their bottom off the gas down the stretch but else had an exquisite regular season, pose the kind of problems that leave opponents– indeed other crown contenders– flummoxed. You can prepare for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray’s two-man game, but on a given possession, it’s nearly insolvable to know how they’ll play off each other. Denver has erected a nearly entirely unscripted offense in its megastar’s image, with the understanding that it’s harder to stop the pick-and-roll when you are freaked out by what is passing off the ball.

In their stylish, the Heat can produce an analogous kind of fear. Both of these brigades designed their offenses to be suitable to produce good aesthetics in crunch time under playoff pressure. They both move the ball, space the bottom, screen, and cut, and if the suitable stuff is not working, also Jimmy Butler, Jokic, and Murray are all able to either make the defense collapse or hit tough shots in insulation.

NBA Finals

The Nuggets are pets because no bone has been suitable to stop them. They put up 124.2 points per 100 effects with Jokic on the court in the regular season, and, through 15 playoff games, that number has dipped only slightly(123.1). As a point of reference, that is further than two points better than the Golden State Soldiers managed with both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant on the bottom in each of the three seasons they spent together.

Denver did not just survive its conference tests tourney with the Los Angeles Lakers; it won in a reach, leaving LeBron James and Anthony Davis to bandy in the losing locker room whether it was the stylish platoon they’d faced as teammates or simply one of the stylish. In the alternate round, the last time the Nuggets lost a game, the Phoenix Suns demanded unearthly performances from Devin Booker and Durant to get two narrow palms at home.

Miami is then because it defeated a Boston Celtics platoon that was slightly more effective than the Nuggets in the regular season. Boston has better bodies and all feathers of lineups that can contemporaneously switch and play 5- out, but its offense does not flummox you the way Denver does. The Nuggets discipline you for miscalculations you do not indeed know you’ve made.

NBA Team Follow up

The wise side they haven’t seen a team in these playoffs that scores in all the different ways that Miami does, either. And while Denver’s defense has held up well, it does not have the same type of protective versatility or gift that the Heat do. As Miami trainer Erik Spoelstra said on Monday, it’s much easier to put together a good defense when your stylish players– Butler and Bam Adebayo– are elite protectors.

I picked Denver to win the series because, while the Heat has a big menu of protective schemes and lineups at their disposal, I am not sure it will look that way against this particular foe. Indeed if Miami finds something that bogs the Nuggets down in Game 1 on Thursday, there is a good chance they’ll have a counter that renders it ineffective the rest of the way.

None of this is to say that this will be easy for Denver. And given how the Heat have handled this entire postseason, no bone should be shocked if they do find commodity in nature. In advance of that, then are five questions about the Tests

1. Can Miami do the put- someone- additional- on- Jokic thing?

As trainer Michael Malone or any Nuggets player will tell you, it’s not as if they are surprised when opposing centers match up with Aaron Gordon and bat around the makeup. For all of the discussion about the Lakers putting Rui Hachimura on Jokic so they could keep their hem protection near the handbasket, it added up to zero triumphs. In this situation, Gordon can still be dangerous entering the ball to Jokic and cutting or screening shooters open. On some nights, like Game 4 of the conference tests, he will just knock down open 3s.

This strategy, still, has occasionally been effective. However, it can throw the offense out of meters, If Denver’s distance is not right. There’s no good way to defend Jokic, but this might be the least bad option if you have the labor force to pull it off.

Miami might not have the labor force, however. It could put Kevin Love back in the starting lineup, but, the way Caleb Martin is playing, this seems doubtful( and Love would be targeted in the pick-and-roll). Could Martin or Butler hold up as well as Hachimura and James did against Jokic? Also doubtful, and Adebayo is not the same kind of interference Davis is as a help protector. Anyone who guards Jokic is at threat of getting in foul trouble, Adebayo included.

2. How will the Nuggets handle Butler?

Gordon has been the primary protector against Karl- Anthony Towns, Durant, and James in the playoffs, and he is fluently the Nugget most equipped to guard Butler one-on-one. He has the size, strength, and bottom speed to make Butler work for his points, handed that he stays down on pump fakes.

When Butler goes tourney-stalking, however, what will Denver do? On the morning of the Lakers series, the Nuggets were a little too willing to give up the switch when James went at Murray, and I wonder if they’ll do effects else with Butler.

Assuming Denver matches up conventionally, anticipate seeing a steady diet of Butler- Adebayo pick- and- rolls. Can Jokic get down with dropping, or will he be over at the position of the screen? Do not be surprised if, at some point, the Nuggets try Gordon on Adebayo so they can switch it. However, I want to see who they trust to start effects against Butler,( If this happens. Kentavious Caldwell- Pope and Bruce Brown can bug him, but Jeff Green’s size could be useful for the switch.)

Another thing to watch is how the Heat use Butler off the ball. Every time he sets a screen for Duncan Robinson, Max Strus or Gabe Vincent, it could compromise Denver’s defense. I could see Spoelstra having those guys screen for Butler, too, with the ball in Adebayo’s hands, like the very end of the Bucks series.