Shaq & Chuck React to Heat Starting Kevin Love & Preview Game 2 | 2023 NBA Finals

The big news Kevin Love has been a DNP the last three games of the playoffs going back to the Boston series and here in game one check. What do you think this means for Miami tonight? I'm going to give him a little bit more size. He is a stretch for you know, what they call you can go out and know if the Joker is ever going to switch him, keep him away from the bats because he is a threat from the three. But, you know, I'm still anxious to see how they're going to defend the Joker. What are they going to do? That's some good things they did in that fourth quarter. They're probably going to capitalize off that. But like you said, Matt, it's a tall order and we'll see if this works. But I don't think they should double right away. I think they should mix it up, you know, make Joker score four or five backers in a row, get 10 points. You don't want him to pick your parkers. Joker is one of us. He don't get his 27. He don't get his 27 aggressively or non-aggressive, but you don't want to let him get the others involved early, especially here at home. So I'm anxious to see how they play him tonight. As for Kevin Love, he's become almost exclusively a three-point shooter since he arrived in Miami and he shot it just under 37 percent here in the postseason. What can he do for Miami tonight? Just spread the floor more. I mean, he's a bigger body to go against Joker. So number one, that's going to help in the passing lanes. But the main thing, he can pull the Joker away from the basket. That should help Bam. That should have Jimmy get to the basket more because they didn't shoot any free throws basically the last game. So that's the only difference. But man, the one thing about this Nugget team, they don't let you make mistakes. I think it'll help because, you know, the way these teams play defense now, they switch everything. The Joker, the Joker just sit there like Peyton Manning last game, like, well, let me see what that mismatch is. He played a quarterback the first five, six, seven plays of the game. But Kevin's going to have to make some threes. And that's the only reason he would be in the game and to spread the floor. So he's going to have to, to me, probably make five or six threes if Miami is going to be successful. You know, Miami was just five of 16 on wide open threes in game one. They shot it at about 48 percent in the Boston Series. And they had a lot of open threes, too. That was what was interesting. Even Max Strews, 0 for 9 from 3, 0 for 5 on wide open threes. And you talk about Kevin Love. Just the threat of him out there is important. You got to play him. But, you know, look, we don't typically say this about a Kevin Love on the other side. But I thought Miami, you talk about taking advantage of mismatches or mistakes. We had Vincent guarding Aaron Gordon early and they were able to go inside Aaron Gordon using his size. So at least Kevin Love will give some size and maybe prevent Gordon from getting off early. But I like this to match the size and physicality. Have Love out there without a bio to start the game. Yeah. And it was really funny when people talk about perception and reality. I did a radio show for one of my friends here in Denver yesterday. And he said, you know, Miami is not going to shoot that bad. I said, did you actually even look at the stats for the game? He said, no, I didn't look at the stats. I said, the Nuggets didn't shoot. He actually shot the ball better than. Plus 15 on threes in game one. So this notion that everything Miami is going to shoot. I said, the Nuggets going to shoot the ball better. They were the team that hadn't played in 10 days. So this notion that everybody going to start making threes. I said, man, the Nuggets, they did not shoot the ball well. So it's hope that Miami just going to start making threes and going to change the whole outcome of the game. I don't agree with. Both teams shot well below their postseason averages in terms of three point percentage. One of the differences for Miami was the free throws in an NBA playoff record to free throw attempts and the fact that they weren't going to the rim and some of that is Jimmy Butler. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I mean, they were driving, but they were driving to pass. They weren't driving to score. Jimmy Butler was getting into the paint, but wasn't even looking at the basket. You don't know if it was. He just was being tentative and he was maybe feeling the game out. He's always patient. Or he felt, you know what? The size was giving me problems, but he's got to be more aggressive. I've got to look to hunt his shot shots like that. Get into the paint. Be efficient. And of course, get to the line. Put some pressure on that defense of Denver. You got to draw some fouls and Jimmy Butler, one of the best. I think sometimes when you're a star, you got to be more selfish. And Jimmy's got to be more selfish. He's you know, Kenny talked about it. He's one of the more patient guys when it comes to offensive. He never rushes or anything like that. But when you when you're the guy, you can't be unselfish. You got to be more selfish. Got to be more aggressive. That's the depression of responsibility to go with being the best player. Bam did his part. Jimmy, Jimmy cannot have less than 20. He has to have 20 to 25. But this team to even be competitive, in my opinion. And when you look at the heat and I'm only having two free throws, you can take that two ways. One, they were not aggressive or they weren't getting any calls. I'm going to go with a man. They weren't that aggressive. Like you said, Grant, getting in the lane, looking for players. They just need to be aggressive in the fourth quarter. It was a little bit too late. They got more aggressive. So hopefully they'll be a little bit more aggressive to start the game today. And Matt, they really got to be aggressive because the threat of Kevin Love is going to make the Joker have to come out. You can't leave Kevin Love open to shoot. So he's going to automatically pull the Joker away from the basket. So that to me, Jimmy, Bam, Caleb Martin, all those guys, they got to be, you know, even Kyle Lauer. The lane should be a lot open for the heat tonight with Kevin Love out there. It'll be interesting to see Butler's approach. He was a minus 10 in game one. That was the worst of any player. And I've often compared him to the Joker in that. I can't think of two stars in the league who care less about shot attempts. But sometimes, to your point, sometimes he's going to have to deal with it. But there's a difference. The Joker got more guys who can score on it. And they were getting they were getting those guys going, getting, you know. But Jimmy can't be. You got to be selfish sometimes. Well, you got to be selfish and you got to impact winning. See, the Joker can impact winning, not even taking a shot. We talked in game after game one. That first quarter took one shot late in the first quarter. But he was impacted with his play, his ball movement, his assisting. Jimmy wasn't getting that done in part because guys weren't hitting shots. But he's got to have an impact on this game. It's got to do it early. The Joker can get. Jimmy's not going to win the game with assists. Right. Jimmy's going to win the game. The Joker can win a game with assists. That's how great he is. Jimmy is going to he's going to score because realistically, he don't have a two guys that going to get you 20 a night. That's him and BAM. So they have to get a minimum of 20 each. Now, obviously, Martin's important. Gabe Benson's important. But your two stars, they got to get 20. And when you say score, I don't mean score sporadically. He needs to score like he scored in the first two series of the 30s and, you know, the 40s and even, you know, the 50 point game. Yeah. Needs to be super aggressive. Chuck, I agree with you because, you know, if you're going to let the game come to you and you're going to give it to the others and they're not going, you got to get too late. You know, it seems to me that their bigger problem is on the other end of the floor. It's dealing with that guy who had the 14 assisting game one. That's a record for a first time finals participant. It's a record for a century. But if you go back and look at the stupid Boston Celtics are just going to stand around and go one on one. The Denver Nuggets played to me. They do a lot like the Warriors. There's so much ball and body movement. And let me tell you something. I was never a great defender, but that's the hardest thing in basketball to guard ball movement and body movement. And the Joker, man, he's back there. He's like a great quarterback. And there's no doubt about it.