DENVER -- In late December, the Miami Heat started a long road trip at Ball Arena and Bam Adebayo had an excellent night at the office.
He scored 22 points, repeatedly forcing Denver Nuggets defenders out of position as he got 11 trips to the foul line. He was at his defensive playmaking best with four steals and two blocks. It was every bit the All-Star and All-Defense-worthy performance that has become the trademark of his career.
And Adebayo and the Miami Heat were still blitzed by the playmaking artistry of Nikola Jokic, who served up 12 assists alongside 12 rebounds and 19 points to complete the triple-double in a five-point win.
This has been the story between Adebayo and Jokic -- and, therefore, the Nuggets and Heat -- for years. The Heat's franchise center has routinely been productive and aggressive when faced with the monumental challenge that is Jokic. And repeatedly, the two-time MVP has just been better.
The stakes were at their highest Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. And there was Adebayo doing his thing, piling up 26 points with 13 rebounds and 5 assists. He was the best player on the floor for the Heat, delivering when he's needed most after a disappointing Eastern Conference finals performance.
And there was Jokic, again. He was the best player on the floor (again) with 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds. Just like last season's regular-season visit to Denver, when Adebayo had a triple-double -- and Jokic had a bigger one. Or the game last year in Miami when Adebayo had 24 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists -- and Jokic had 24, 15 and 7.
Loss. Loss.
You wouldn't blame Adebayo if he was frustrated at this point. Jokic is 11-2 in head-to-head matchups with the Heat and Adebayo, including a game in Miami in February during which Jokic went only 12-for-14 from the field.
"You can talk about stats, you can talk about this guy did that, did this and that," Adebayo said this week, "but you know at the end of the day, they're going to remember the people who won."
After Adebayo struggled with the defensive strategy the Boston Celtics used against him in the conference finals -- he averaged just 12.4 points over the past five games with 17 turnovers -- he found no such difficulty with the Nuggets. They allowed Adebayo space coming off screens, partially because of Jokic's defensive limitations in the paint, and he repeatedly ate them up.
But Adebayo also took 25 shots, more than 10 above his playoff average -- which lowered the Heat's offensive efficiency. Once again, even when Adebayo was great against Denver it came with a caveat.
"I thought he had some good opportunities right in his sweet spot and then also some opportunities at the rim," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Then I thought some of our detail with the spacing and the pace and our intention of our offense kind of got us jammed up."
Still, if the Heat have any path forward against the emerging juggernaut the Nuggets are starting to look like, it will take even more prolific games from Adebayo. In addition to his scoring, he was able to generate numerous open perimeter looks for his teammates in Game 1 by driving and passing. But the Heat, who shot terrifically on 3-pointers against the Celtics, were cold.
According to Second Spectrum tracking, the Heat were 5-of-16 on 3-pointers when they had at least six feet of space to shoot in Game 1, a number of them created off Adebayo passes. Against the Celtics, they shot 49% on those wide-open looks.
To bounce back in the series, the Heat will need to break what has become a yearslong trend in this matchup of bigs.
"When Bam is making shots, I think he makes everybody's job a lot easier," Heat star Jimmy Butler said. "We want him to continually be aggressive, and he was making, you know, the right passes when he couldn't get a bucket, as well, and those shots will fall for everybody."