{"id":33490,"date":"2023-06-10T16:31:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T22:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bruce-brown-delivers-for-denver-nuggets-in-game-4-of-nba-finals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:10:46","slug":"bruce-brown-delivers-for-denver-nuggets-in-game-4-of-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bruce-brown-delivers-for-denver-nuggets-in-game-4-of-nba-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Brown delivers for Denver Nuggets in Game 4 of NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Denver
Denver Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) drives to the basket Miami Heat center Cody Zeller (44) defends during the first half in Game 4 of of the basketball NBA Finals on Friday in Miami. (Kyle Terada\/USA Today Sports via AP)<\/span>Kyle Terada<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MIAMI \u2013 What can Brown do for the Denver Nuggets?<\/p>\n

He has them one win from their first championship in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Bruce Brown scored 21 points off the bench to help Denver beat the Miami Heat 108-95 in Game 4<\/a> of the NBA Finals on Friday night. He was at his best after Nikola Jokic exited early in the fourth quarter because of foul trouble, helping the Nuggets weather the storm instead of blowing another double-digit lead.<\/p>\n

Knowing the Heat would focus on trying to take Jamal Murray out of the game, Brown put his mind to being assertive \u2013 and it worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other four players were going to have to make plays,\u201d he said. \u201cLuckily, it was just my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Denver
Denver Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) drives to the basket as Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin (16) and guard Kyle Lowry (7) defend during the second half of Game 4 of the basketball NBA Finals on Friday in Miami. (Lynne Sladky\/Associated Press)<\/span>Lynne Sladky<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Was it ever. Brown shot 4 of 5 from the field and scored 11 points in the fourth quarter alone, playing a major role in fending off the Heat<\/a> without Jokic on the floor for several minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce Brown in the fourth quarter was amazing,\u201d coach Michael Malone said. \u201cThey were giving Jamal so much attention that, let\u2019s get Jamal off the ball, let Bruce make some plays. He was aggressive, got to the basket, made shots and tonight was an impressive performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second time in as many games an unheralded Nuggets player helped seal a victory. Rookie Christian Braun \u2013 whose last name is also pronounced like \u201cBrown\u201d \u2013 scored 15 points in Game 3<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce can hoop,\u201d said Murray, who scored 15 points. \u201cWe got a bunch of guys that can come into the game and impact it. You can\u2019t just focus on me or \u2018Jok.\u2019 You have to guard everybody, and tonight was another example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Denver
Denver Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) drives to the basket as Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) defends during the first half of Game 4 of the basketball NBA Finals on Friday in Miami. (Wilfredo Lee\/Associated Press)<\/span>Wilfredo Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denver led by 10 when Jokic picked up his fifth foul with 9:24 left in the fourth. The lead shrank to as few as five points before Murray scored or assisted on 10 consecutive points.<\/p>\n

Quickly, it became Brown\u2019s show. In a stretch starting with just over five minutes left, he made a running layup, sank a couple of free throws, hit a pullup jumper and scored driving to the basket.<\/p>\n

It was quite the impact from Brown, signed away from the Brooklyn Nets last offseason in free agency. Malone saw what Brown did defensively against Boston\u2019s Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the playoffs and hoped the 26-year-old would be able to help run Denver\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I say that I envisioned him scoring 11 points on the road in Game 4 of the finals? I can\u2019t say that,\u201d Malone said. \u201cBut I did envision him being a ballhandler, a playmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown, a University of Miami product, saw that in himself, too, and felt he needed a chance to show it in the pros. A second-round pick of Detroit in 2018, he displayed flashes but still had a hole missing in his game early in his career: He couldn\u2019t shoot.<\/p>\n

\"Denver
Denver Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) looks to pass the ball under pressure from Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson (55) 130during the first half of Game 4 of the basketball NBA Finals on Friday in Miami. (Lynne Sladky\/Associated Press)<\/span>Lynne Sladky<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey left me wide open and let me shoot, so that took a toll on my confidence, but it put a chip on my shoulder,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI just got in the gym and worked, and now it\u2019s showing on the biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

That showing on this stage made Malone beam that Brown is \u201cnot afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment certainly wasn\u2019t too big for Brown, but it wasn\u2019t yet a chance for him to reflect on his roller coaster journey to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing that on this stage, this is amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll think about it when we\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nuggets forward Bruce Brown (11) drives to the basket Miami Heat center Cody Zeller (44) defends during the first half in Game 4 of of the basketball NBA Finals on Friday in Miami. (Kyle Terada\/USA Today Sports via AP)Kyle Terada MIAMI \u2013 What can Brown do for the Denver Nuggets? He has them one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,3603,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-national-basketball-association-north-american-professional","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82224,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33490\/revisions\/82224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33490"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}