Tyler King’s game grades from the Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 win over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals:

Offense

The Nuggets still haven’t had a great game shooting from 3-point range, but it still hasn’t mattered. Despite shooting under 28% from behind the arc, Denver still managed to shoot over 50% from the field as a team. Big games from Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray had a lot to do with that, but the Nuggets once again dominated in the paint, scoring 60 points as a team. Even rookie Christian Braun got in on the offensive action, going 7-for-8 from the field for 15 points on shots almost exclusively at the rim.

Grade: B+

Defense

This one will have Michael Malone smiling. After the Nuggets coach openly criticized his team for a lack of effort (mainly on the defensive end) in the Game 2 loss, his team responded with an excellent performance on the road. The old saying “defense travels” certainly applied to Denver on Wednesday night as the Heat had one of their worst offensive performances of the postseason, and it wasn’t like Miami simply missed a bunch of wide-open 3-pointers. Sure, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo combined for 50 points, but the Nuggets made sure it took plenty of shots to get there. Plus, Denver was able to hold the top shooting team in the playoffs to just 32.4% from behind the arc.

Grade: A

Coaching

Give Malone credit, whatever he said to his team in between Sunday’s Game 2 loss and Wednesday night certainly worked. He got the best effort possible out of his team and while the likes of Michael Porter Jr. continued to struggle, Malone made the right moves by giving more minutes to the bench guys — Bruce Brown, Christian Braun and Jeff Green, all of whom had a big impact in the win.

Grade: A-

Overall

It might be hard to top the Game 4 win over the Lakers that earned the Nuggets their first trip to the NBA Finals in franchise history, but make no mistake, this Game 3 win over the Heat was another special performance on the road. Dating back to the dominant Game 6 win to close out the Suns in round two, that’s now four straight road wins for Denver. This one, though, with triple-doubles from both Jokic and Murray and a special game from Braun off the bench should vault to near the top of the list for most enjoyable wins for Nuggets fans.

Grade: A