FILM STUDY: A LOOK AT CHRISTIAN BRAUN'S BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE IN GAME 3 OF THE NBA FINALS

Only four rookies have dropped at least 15 points in an NBA Finals Game in the last 20 years.

Miami's Tyler Herro did it three separate times in the 2020 Finals. His teammate at the time, Kendrick Nunn, also joined him on the list with 18 points in 2020. Way back in 2007, Daniel "Boobie" Gibson dropped 16 points off the bench as a first-year pro.

On Wednesday, in what was easily the biggest game of the Denver Nuggets' season, Christian Braun became the fourth rookie to do so and finished with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting. It was the latest example of Denver's rookie stalwart exceeding expectations.

Braun was picked 21st overall by Denver last June. There were no guarantees that he'd be an impact player, much less one at this junction in the season.

Here's a list of the last fifteen players to get picked 21st overall: Braun, Keon Johnson, Tyrese Maxey, Brandon Clarke, Grayson Allen, Terrence Ferguson, DeAndre' Bembry, Justin Anderson, Mitch McGary, Gorgui Dieng, Jared Sulinger, Nolan Smith, Craig Brackins, Darren Collison, and Ryan Anderson.

Some good players, no doubt, yet not one of them has played in an NBA Finals. Until Braun.

He's been a winner his entire basketball career, a mindset instilled by his parents, both of whom were hoopers. Braun's won a championship at every level—in high school and in college at Kansas—and is now two wins away from making it a trifecta in the NBA.

It didn't take him long to claw out a spot in Michael Malone's rotation, a notoriously hard thing to do as a first-year player.

"Christian has proved himself all year long," said Malone after Game 3. "He's been in the rotation throughout these 18 playoff games now, and if you look around, there's not many rookies playing meaningful minutes in the NBA this time of year, and it speaks to Christian's confidence. It speaks to him being a winner. He's won at every level: High school, college, and now he's in the NBA Finals as a rookie in the NBA. He just has stayed ready the whole year, mentally, physically, emotionally. That kid never gets too high, never gets too low. Very calm, cool, and collected young man."

He had moments against Minnesota and Phoenix in the first two rounds of the postseason. More importantly, he was the only rookie to receive any amount of playing time past Round 1.

The Western Conference Finals weren't as kind to Braun. His time on the court declined from 12 to 4 to 3 minutes in the first three games of the series. Denver lost his minutes in all three contests, eventually resulting in his first DNP of the postseason in the closeout Game 4.

But his time wasn't done.

He played 8 minutes in Game 1 of the Finals. In Game 2, that number rose to 15, and Denver won those minutes by +8, the first time Braun produced a positive plus/minus since the second round. He had multiple high-energy plays, ripping away three steals and playing a massive role in Denver's 40-14 run that occurred between the first and second quarter.

That brings us to Game 3, or what shall hereby be known as "The Christian Braun game." Braun checked in late in the first quarter and immediately got to work.

Miami has played more zone defense than any other team in playoff history and has largely been successful with it throughout their deep playoff run. Though their unique style of defensive coverage has sloughed off in terms of effectiveness against Denver, it's still stymied the Nuggets in moments, particularly when Nikola Jokić is off the floor and early in fourth quarters.

Denver's most common zone-buster throughout the first two games of the Finals was to place Jokić in the middle of the floor where he could post-up, shoot a midrange shot, or spray passes to teammates all over the floor. It's something we wrote about this week. Miami counter-adjusted to Denver's zone adjustment by fronting Jokić and denying him the ball in Game 2. It worked, and the HEAT tied up the series 1-1.

So, it was Denver's turn to adjust, and Malone did so by altering Jokić's positioning. Instead of placing him directly in the middle of the zone at the elbows, Denver had their superstar center post up on the low block. It threw Miami off in Game 3 after seeing Jokić utilized one way in the first two contests.

Of course, in order for the strategy to work effectively, the players around Jokić would need to shift Miami's defense accordingly. Enter Christian Braun, who exhibited excellence as a cutter well beyond his years.

His first bucket came when Miami sent a double-team toward Jokić while in its zone scheme early in the second quarter. Duncan Robinson was in charge of playing in the middle of Jeff Green and Braun on the opposite (or "weak") side of the floor according to Miami's zone defense rules, but Braun put Robinson in an impossible situation by cutting along the baseline for the two-pointer.

Braun did the same thing later in the game when Miami, once again, double-teamed Aaron Gordon on the low block while in the zone. On the opposite (or "weak") side of the floor, Jimmy Butler played in the middle of Braun and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. As Gordon turned toward the rim, Butler flew up to the left wing to account for the wide-open Caldwell-Pope, and so Braun cut along the baseline once more for the bucket.

Miami threw out a 1-3-1 zone defense late in the third quarter, which is seldom seen in the NBA (HEAT head coach Erik Spoelstra is a madman, in the best way possible). But Denver was prepared and posted up Jokić low on the right side of the floor. This pulled over Cody Zeller, and Jeff Green cut along the baseline to attract Robinson's attention.

Braun noticed that Robinson had turned his back to him, so he cut to the rim from the left wing at a 45-degree angle. Butler tried to get in his way but was too late to bother Braun, who combines veteran-level off-ball movement with the electric athleticism of a first-year player.

Miami tried everything to bother Denver's two-man game between Jokić and Jamal Murray, which is a whole other story in itself, but largely to no avail. One of those defensive strategies was "blitzing" Murray and sending two defenders his way when he and Jokić connected for a pick-and-roll.

Miami blitzed Murray early in the fourth quarter with Caleb Martin and Bam Adebayo. Jokić, meanwhile, popped behind the three-point line on the opposite side of the floor. The threat of Jokić's three-pointer pulled Butler up, leaving Braun all alone in the corner. Instead of standing still, Braun beelined it to the rim to catch an (awesome) pass from Murray and finish home the layup, plus the foul.

"When he cuts and is aggressive, one defender is going to take him and that's going to open a lot of space. He was attacking downhill, which helps a lot just to go by the guy or just go aggressive. Yesterday he was amazing," said Jokić about Braun's cutting. "But generally, he is playing really aggressive, and that's really helping us."

Braun did more than just cut up Miami's defense. He drove hard twice into the middle of the HEAT's zone, once from the wing and once from the corner, to dump the ball off to Jokić. At one point, he ran pick-and-roll with the Joker for a layup. Maybe his best highlight of the night was when he pushed the pace in transition and finished through Jimmy Butler. He bullied the bully. As a rookie. It was unbelievable. Moreover, it was a fantastic example of the rookie's unusual confidence and poise on the biggest stage.

Of course, what earned Braun a spot in Malone's rotation in the first place wasn't his offense; it was his defense. That's been his calling card since college, a reason he was selected in the first round of this year's draft.

Braun's a legit wing defender—6'7 with quick feet and exceptional strength at just 22 years old. He changes directions well and is incredibly disciplined, staying down on pump fakes and reading opposing actions like a 10-year veteran.

One of Miami's most dangerous plays in the halfcourt is when they spring their sharpshooter, Robinson, off handoffs. Robinson immediately became one of the best sharpshooters in the league upon cracking Miami's rotation in 2020, and since then, he's diversified his game by improving as a downhill player and creator for others. That's only made his offense out of handoffs more lethal.

Braun completely erased Miami's baseline out-of-bounds play for Robinson by "locking and trailing" the 29-year-old around a screen to the left corner. Then, when Robinson and Adebayo connected for a handoff as a follow-up, Braun pressured Robinson from behind to once again wipe away the three-point look.

(Credit must go to Jokić, too, for stepping up to Robinson and buying Braun some time while pursuing his man.)

His one-on-one defense was exceptional, as well, in Game 3. Martin and Butler were the heroes of Miami's upset against the 57-win Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, yet Braun locked both of them up. His fourth quarter sequence against Butler was particularly impressive, who uses up-fakes and pivots better than perhaps any other guard in the league to create shots for himself in the post. Braun was completely unphased by Butler's trickery and stayed down on his jukes, forcing Miami's superstar to pass out to Adebayo for the missed midrange shot.

"He knows what to do to stay on the floor. He's solid on defense, shoots the gaps, plays hard, in the right spot, he crashes, and plays solid defense. He knows the offense will come when he's doing those things, and he's playing with a lot of confidence. We're finding him like he's a five-year vet. He's just playing the game the right way, every game," said Murray. "Even if he makes mistakes he knows how to bounce back, and I think that's huge for a rookie, especially getting these kind of minutes."

Bench minutes were always going to be a question heading into this series. Against Los Angeles, Malone basically went down to a 6-man rotation in the final game of the series. That's a heavy workload for his starters, who are already having to operate against Miami's arduous pressure defense.

It's been a different story in the NBA Finals. Bruce Brown continues to function as Denver's "sixth starter." Jeff Green has had excellent moments, particularly on the offensive end while posting up Miami's smaller players.

Braun has rounded out the rotation by giving Malone a legit seventh or eighth man, depending on the game. It makes sense that Braun's been more comfortable in this specific series. Miami's a much more perimeter-based team, which plays to his strengths as a defender while snuffing out off-ball actions and hounding smaller players. On offense, he's been able to punish Miami's "junk defenses" by utilizing his cutting acumen to sneak behind the zone for buckets at the rim. His skillfulness off the ball is by far his most crystalized offensive NBA-level skill.

"Very impressive, like I've said before, just how composed and like how poised he is in these moments. It's great for us, just being a rookie, young, and being in this moment, he's taking it very well," said Caldwell-Pope about the 22-year-old.

Each playoff series calls for different things and calls upon different players. Thus far, Christian Braun has been up to the task on the biggest stage.