Heat, three games into losing streak, look to snap skid against NBA Finals foe Denver Nuggets

MIAMI — The Miami Heat have struggled against some of the NBA’s top teams this season, and they are on a three-game losing streak.

Seems like the perfect time to play the reigning NBA champions, who beat Miami in the Finals last year.

Miami (35-29), which sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, goes up against Denver (45-20), which is second in the Western Conference and on a three-game winning streak, at the Kaseya Center on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the first South Florida matchup between the teams since last year’s NBA Finals.

“What I learned about the team (from an earlier loss to Denver) is we have a great connectivity,” rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “Unfortunately, we lost that game, but we know that we’re close to getting over that hump. I think that’s the one thing we learned, especially after these last coupe of weeks, is that we’re very close to getting over that hump. … We’ve got great guys, we’ve got great continuity. At times like this, instead of pulling away, we really come close together.”

The Heat have scuffled against the NBA’s top competition this season. They are 0-3 against the Celtics, 0-2 against the Clippers, 0-2 against the Timberwolves, 0-2 against the Thunder, 1-1 vs. the Cavaliers and 1-2 vs. the Bucks.

Miami and Denver faced off once this season, with the Nuggets coming out ahead 103-97 in Denver on Feb. 29.

“They’re a good team,” Jaquez said. “There’s a lot we have to do to try to slow them down. I thought we did a great job of slowing them down. Offensively, there’s some things that we could’ve done better. … I think we’re going to be much better prepared this time around.”

The Heat will be without reinforcements from key injured players, as guard Tyler Herro (foot) and forward Kevin Love (heel) remain out for Wednesday’s game. 

Denver, meanwhile, is coming off a six-point home win against Toronto on Monday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra credited the Nuggets for being able to seize control of games in crucial moments.

“What they know how to do is, in those key moments of games, how to take control,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of times, that ends up being end of quarter, end of half or the swing moments in the second half — the real pivotal skirmishes as Pat (Riley) likes to call them. They tend to know how to win those. That’s usually what championship-caliber teams, teams that are coming off of a title run, (do). They may not play that most consistent basketball all the way through the regular season, but in those pockets, they know how to win those moments and ultimately, that helps them just win games, even if they’re not playing at that super-highest level that they can get to, which they can.

“They can get to that level, and they did that to us in Denver, and we obviously saw that (Monday). Even right before we played them, they had some similar games like that where they were down and then just turned the games around and they were fully in control in the second half.”