Not shooting from 15 feet - the distance from the basket to the foul line - was.

The Heat made NBA history, and not the good kind, by shooting only two free throws in Game 1 as Denver struck first in the title series with a 104-93 win.

It was the fewest free throw attempts ever by a team in a playoff game and makes one of the adjustments for Game 2 on Sunday simple to forecast: Expect Miami to go into attack mode.

"The attacks, we didn't have enough of them," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team sent Denver to the line for 20 free throws in Game 1.

"I thought the free throw disparity was appropriate. Maybe we could have got two, four, six more based on a call here or a call there. But overall our attack numbers were lower, and that usually translates into lower free throw attempts."

The Nuggets are used to this by now. They are 4-0 in Game 1s in these playoffs -- having led them by 32, 25, 21 and 24 points, respectively. And the teams that lost those games, obviously, had the adjustments to make going into Game 2.

They worked. Sort of. Denver's biggest leads in the three Game 2s it has played so far are 21, 12 and 12 points. That's less than the Game 1 margins, but not enough to affect the outcome. The Nuggets are 3-0 in those games, too.

And if you think that has Nuggets coach Michael Malone at ease, well, think again.

"I told our players today, don't read the paper, don't listen to the folks on the radio and TV saying that this series is over and that we've done something, because we haven't done a damn thing," Malone said.

"We won Game 1. The reason I told our players I was excited this morning is because we won Game 1 and we didn't play well, and there's so many things we can do better."

There's always things to do better. Even for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, believe it or not.

They joined Magic Johnson and James Worthy, in 1987, as the only teammates to have at least 25 points and 10 assists in the same finals game - and the Nuggets' duo did it in their finals debut. Jokic had a 27-point triple-double, Murray finished with 26.

Denver are also trying to be the first team to start a postseason 10-0 at home since Boston in 2018.

While the Nuggets are saying that they missed plenty of open shots, the Heat can absolutely point to that as a way they'll improve in Game 2. Max Strus (0 for 10), Caleb Martin (1 for 7) and Duncan Robinson (1 for 6) were a combined 2 for 23 from the floor in Game 1, 2 for 16 from 3-point range.

Australian Associated Press