Up 1-0 in the NBA Finals, the way Nuggets coach Michael Malone spoke on Saturday after practice, you’d think his team had actually dropped the series opener.

“Yeah, I don’t think we played well in Game 1,” Malone said.

Miami’s poor 3-point shooting, which included just 5 for 16 on wide-open 3s on Thursday night? Not going to happen again, Denver’s coach said bruskly.

“As I told our players this morning, the fact that they got 16 wide-open 3s is problematic, and if you think that Max Strus is going to go 0 for 9 again or Duncan Robinson is going to go 1 for 5 again, you’re wrong,” he said.

Barely prompted, Malone turned his attention to the fourth quarter where the Nuggets were outscored 30-20 and saw a sizable double-digit lead shrink to just nine as the Heat found its 3-point stroke. Think Malone, with a chance to do something no other team in Nuggets history has done, would allow for even an ounce of complacency? Think again. No one’s getting fat with success right now. Not on his watch.

“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 (dang) thing,” Malone said with his trademark fire.

The pick-and-roll defense on Jimmy Butler, the second-chance opportunities, all of it was fair game as Malone audited their film and prepared his squad for Sunday’s Game 2. After the Heat managed just two free throws in Game 1, Malone said he was expecting a level of urgency and aggression from Miami that hadn’t been there. And what they did in Game 1, limiting Miami to 63 points through three quarters and improving to 9-0 at Ball Arena in the postseason, won’t have any bearing on what happens Sunday night.

Aaron Gordon admitted it’s hard not to let the outside chatter filter into his headspace.

“It’s difficult because the people around you get excited, as well,” Gordon said. “So, you have to keep like a calmness. You have to keep a poise to you, like an intense energy but calm, while the rest of everybody else is really frenetic. It’s important to just make the main thing the main thing and just be focused on what the task is at hand.”

Gordon began to get out of his seat at the podium before he decided to make one more point.

“Still reading the newspaper and the news around the world is important and not being consumed with kind of the bubble that is the NBA, even though it expands during the Finals,” he said. “But still, being aware of the other things that are going on outside of the media, the NBA, and the things that are going on outside of the world and reading world news is still really important.”

Hey, whatever it takes to keep a healthy perspective on the biggest stage of your career.

(Also, Aaron, can we interest you in a subscription to The Denver Post?)

Out of respect for the sport and respect for his opponents, Nikola Jokic would never allow himself to look around the corner and dream about a title. He sounded like he’d ordered the same stiff drink as Malone.

“Some possessions we play amazing and some possessions we didn’t play good,” he said. “Some quarters we played really good. I think that’s basketball. That’s why it’s a live thing. You cannot predict what’s going to happen. … Just the way how they play, they don’t let their guard down and they are always playing the same way with the same pace. I think that’s why they are great.”

If any Nuggets players think differently, get with the program.

“Like I said, first round, Finals, it’s nothing until you win it,” Jamal Murray said.