NBA Finals 2023: Denver Nuggets vs Miami Heat confrontation history and notable statistics
The NBA Finals 2023 matchup will take place between the two Eastern and Western champions, Miami Heat vs Denver Nuggets.
The Miami Heat's win-loss record in the Regular Season is 44-38, located in the Eastern 8th seed. Miami currently has 12 wins in 18 games at the Playoffs.
The Denver Nuggets' win-loss record in the Regular Season is 53-29, ranking the No. 1 seed in the West. Denver had 12 wins in 15 games at the Playoffs.
- The Denver Nuggets have had a relatively easy ride to the 2023 NBA Finals thanks to a highly consistent roster, led by Nikola Jokic with an average of 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists this Playoffs. This is the first time in the club's history that the Denver Nuggets have reached the final series
- Meanwhile, this will be the 7th NBA Finals series of the Miami Heat and one of the most difficult Playoffs seasons. They were almost eliminated in the play-in round by the Chicago Bulls but then the more they played, the more stubborn they became and then revived strongly.
A Game 7 victory over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference made Miami the second team in history to make it to the NBA Finals from seed eight.
- The Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat have met a total of 72 times. Denver is marginally better with 38 wins, Heat has 34 wins.
- Particularly in this year's Regular Season. The Nuggets won both matches by 124-119 and 112-108, respectively.
- Looking further, the Nuggets have won 6 consecutive matches against the Miami Heat and won 9 of the last 10 confrontations (from the 2018-19 season to present). The Heat only won the Nuggets once in the "NBA bubble" in 2020.
- Miami Heat (G-G-F-F-C): Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin, Bam Adebayo
- Denver Nuggets (G-G-F-F-C): Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic
- Miami Heat: Kyle Lowry, Kevin Love, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith, Cody Zeller
- Denver Nuggets: Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Christian Braun
- The Miami Heat have not won at the Denver Nuggets since late November 2016 to present.
- Particularly for the 2023 NBA Playoffs, the Miami Heat have won all of the Game 1 matches they played (against the Bucks, Knicks and Celtics).
- Denver Nuggets are unbeaten in all 8 home games at this Playoffs and have a 6-match unbeaten streak, extending from Game 5 of the Western semi-final series (won 2 games against the Suns, 4 games against the Lakers).
- With the participation of Nikola Jokic (29.9 PPG) and Jamal Murray (27.7 PPG), Denver owns two of the 9 players who averaged the most points in the Playoffs this year. Jimmy Butler (28.5 PPG) is ranked 7th.
- Miami Heat's greatest strength is its reserve players. They rotated from 4-5 substitutes and scored 213 points more than the opponent in the whole Playoffs.
- The Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets share the two leading positions in 3-pointer success rate at the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
