Nikola Jokic had a career-high 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, Jamal Murray had a triple-double, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 109-94 on Wednesday night to take the NBA Finals 2-1 .

Jokic became the first player to record at least 30 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in an NBA Finals game. He made 12 of 21 shots and made two saves as Denver bounced back from their loss in Game 2 at home.

Murray had 34 points on 10 rebounds and 10 assists with the Nuggets in control. Christian Brown had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting off the bench, while Aaron Gordon had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists for Denver.

Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and Bam Adebayo had 22 points and 17 rebounds for the Heat, who were 21 points behind.

The Nuggets used Jokic’s 10th triple-double in the playoffs to regain home court advantage. Jokic has played three 30-20-10 games in NBA playoff history. The rest came from Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Denver shot 51.2 percent from inside but only 5 out of 18 (27.8 percent) out of three. The Nuggets also had a big 58-33 lead in rebounding.

Miami was only 37% from inside and 11 out of 35 (31.4%) out of three. Caleb Martin scored 10 points for the Heat.

After a five-point lead at halftime, the Nuggets scored the first six points in the second half on Jokic’s shots and Gordon’s shots to take a 59–48 lead.

Miami later cut it to seven before Denver started to break away 21–11. Centavius ​​Caldwell-Pope made a jumper to give Denver a 78–62 lead, and Brown ended the series with a layup and another layup as the lead grew to 82–63 with 50.2 seconds left in the third twelve minutes.

The Heat took the final five points to cut the lead to 82–68 before the final stanza, with Adebayo hitting two free throws to close the gap to 12 in the first minute of the final quarter.

However, Murray and Jokic followed, scoring the next four points to start the series at 11 to 2. Brown converted a three-point play with 8:45 left and hit the float 17 seconds later to extend Denver’s lead to 93–72 with 8.28 on the clock.

Murray made it 101-84 with three minutes left. Miami later cut the lead to nine before the Nuggets closed it to make it 2-1.

The fourth game will take place on Friday night, again in Miami.

Source: Reuters.