Heat -- Need 'all five guys' to guard Nikola Jokic, slow Nuggets - ESPN

DENVER — The Miami Heat understand that if they want to win the 2023 NBA championship, they are going to have to slow down Nikola Jokic. They know the challenge of doing that has proved to be difficult for the rest of the league, but it's an assignment they believe they are ready for heading into Game 1 of the NBA Finals against Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

«He's very unique,» Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday. «He doesn't really have any noticeable weaknesses in terms of his size, his skill set. He's one of one in the myriad of ways that he can impact the game and impact winning.»

In order to make the two-time MVP's life on the floor more difficult, Heat star Jimmy Butler and his teammates know they must keep an eye on the big man everywhere he goes.

«Guarding him as a team with all five guys,» Butler said. «He does everything so well, and we're going to have to be in the gaps, we're going to have to gang rebound. We can't have defensive lapses. We're just going to have to get after it. I think at the end of the day, he's a major key, as DJ Khaled would say, and we're going to have to lock in.»

Heat center Bam Adebayo figures to get the majority of the time guarding Jokic. Heat big men Kevin Love and Cody Zeller didn't play much at all at the end of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, but Spoelstra said that matchups and minutes could unfold differently in this series. For his part, Adebayo reiterated that the key in guarding Jokic is making him take difficult shots.

«Force him into tough shots, and live with the result,» Adebayo said. «That's the biggest thing for me. I feel like this is one of those series where he becomes very dangerous when you let his teammates get