Good morning. Let’s basketball.

La Plage de Trouville; Claude Monet; 1870

Nikola Jokic, one of the best players in the world, has had three believably unbelievable performances in his first three NBA Finals games. In the series he is now averaging 33-14-9 on 59/44/85 shooting. He just had the first 30-20-10 game in NBA Finals history. It was the fifth 30-20-10 game in NBA playoffs history. If you paid attention to the broadcast, you know who had the previous four 30-20-10 games: Wilt Chamberlain once, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once and Nikola Jokic twice. It bears repeating: Jokic has more 30-20-10 playoff games than the rest of the NBA player base in history combined, including the only such game in the playoffs.

That is, of course, because his passing is uniquely effective as a center, who tend to be players with 20-rebound nights. He is totally unique in that sense: he runs the offense, he controls the glass and he’s likely to score bucket after bucket when called upon to do so.

What’s been the real difference in the Nuggets’ two wins and their one loss has been Jamal Murray. Even the greatest stars need able second options to win at this level. In Games 1 and 3, Murray was locked in and helped Jokic control the game through Denver’s offense. In Game 2, Miami had more success limiting Murray. So it goes. Murray had it going from the tip on Wednesday. There was just no question that he watched tape of Game 2, he strategized with the Nuggets staff and Jokic and he came out for blood.

Murray roasted single-coverage so consistently that Miami started trapping him on Jokic screens. The first time or two that left Jokic — Nikola Jokic! — open to do what Jokic does (hit shots or find even better shots for his teammates). Then the Heat would send an early rotation to Jokic and play 3-on-2 against Murray and Jokic. That had limited success.

Every superstar needs a player like this to reach their own full potential. Murray has yet to be named an All-Star; I suspect that as long as he plays up to his career standard early next season, he’s an easy pick to pencil in for 2024. One of the more amazing Murray attributes is that he seems more consistent in the playoffs than the regular season, a bit like Jimmy Butler albeit in much different ways. You wonder how much his familiarity with playing with Jokic factors into that. As I’ve written before, the Nuggets have been patient, which creates stability.

The Nuggets' proof of concept for patience in the NBA Tom Ziller · May 23 Read full story

It’s important that Murray has come all the way back from his injuries, because Michael Porter Jr. continues to struggle in his role in the Finals. It’s giving James Harden 2012 vibes. The defensive effort and attention to detail was sometimes better in Game 3 than Game 2, but there were still lapses. He remains a player for whom it feels that getting little going on offense really impacts the rest of his game negatively.

Not so for Murray, who has been hunted on defense but is doing his best to fight and stay active. The rebounds are a tell on that: Denver has a pretty consistent size advantage, but Murray is competing with largely bigger Miami wings for these caroms. He won the battle in Game 3.

If Game 2 was a blaring warning siren about how the Nuggets could lose this series at the hands of a tremendously competitive Miami team, Game 3 was the example of why the Nuggets were big favorites coming in. It’s hard to imagine stopping the Jokic-Murray combination when they play this well.

CP3 OH???

We have some news from Phoenix. Turner’s Chris Haynes reported Wednesday that the Suns will waive Chris Paul before his 2023-24 contract becomes fully guaranteed in an effort to open up some offseason flexibility for the team. But both Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski offered slightly different reporter: Charania reported that the Suns are considering multiple options for CP3, one of which might be waiving him, while Woj reports that the Suns and CP3’s camp are talking through the paths.

About $16 million of CP3’s $30 million contract for 2023-24 is guaranteed, with a date of June 28 for a decision. There’s also $30 million unguaranteed for 2024-25. That second piece of the equation is a big deal here, but that means that CP3’s contract currently has two years remaining. The stretch provision says that you can waive a player, take the guaranteed money owed them, and count it against the cap spread out over a term that is twice plus one the number of years remaining. With only about $16 million guaranteed and two years on the deal, the Suns can stretch that over five seasons. That means the CP3 stretch would only count about $3 million per year against the cap. According to Woj that opens up at least the taxpayer midlevel for Phoenix this offseason, which could help bring in a new starter.

The Lakers intuitively feel like such prohibitive favorites of landing CP3 that it’s almost not worth discussing other options. Almost …

Here’s my outsider Chris Paul landing spot power rankings.

1. Lakers (Friend of LeBron, a basketball city CP3 is very familiar with)

2. Grizzlies (vet leadership needs plus insurance policy)

3. Pistons (reunite with Monty, mentor Cade and Ivey)

4. Hornets (mentor LaMelo and maybe Scoot)

5. Wizards (Game 1 starter?)

Whatcha got?

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Links

Ramona Shelburne on the Murray-Jokic chemistry.

Howard Beck talks to Mike Breen about calling the Finals for 18 years. I feel like it’s been a big year of Breen appreciation. I love it.

Jason Jones in The Athletic on the lasting relevance of the Converse All-Star. One of the only non-negotiable items in my closet.

Jeff Green and Udonis Haslem talk to Bill Rhoden about living in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.

For our local Zardheads: a nice profile from Josh Robbins in The Athletic on Washington’s new GM Michael Winger.

Showtime did a live stream starring Kevin Garnett watching Game 3 with … Paul Pierce, who appeared to be in quite a state. Some links to choice clips in this thread. The lighter clip … sheesh.

Alright, that’s all. Be excellent to each other.