Nuggetaboutit, Miami!

The Nuggets now have won four consecutive games on the road in the desert, next to the Pacific Ocean and by the Atlantic Ocean.

They conquered the sons of the beaches with four quarters of bold, brilliant basketball Wednesday night and regained control of their home-court advantage.

The Nuggets would not let go.

The Big Three of Denver — The Joker, the Blue Flash and The Rook — were the difference makers, distinction takers and the Heat heartbreakers.

Nikola Jokic finished with his 10th playoffs triple double — 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists — and Jamal Murray recorded his first postseason triple double — 34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

And Christian Braun joined the pair in the triangle of success with his most proficient pro playoff performance — 15 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist. The rookie’s stat line may have been a single double, but he gave the Nuggets 19 minutes of blood, sweat and fifth gears.

Braun is the only player on the Nuggets roster trying to win his second successive championship after helping to lead Kansas to the NCAA title a season ago. Like Murray and Jokic, he is an original Nuggets’ pick — 21st in the last draft.

It is well to remember that Braun, the Nuggets’ eighth man, did not play a moment in the final victory over the Lakers. In his previous 15 playoff games, the high point total for the 22-year-old, 6-foot-7 guard was nine. But Braun — pronounced “Brown’’ as the basketball world has just found out in the postseason — was a whirling dervish in the second half on both ends of the court with his defense, even on Jimmy Butler, and his diving and driving and passing and shooting and stealing. Michael Malone trusted the young man, who was an afterthought for most of the season, in a critical span of the third quarter when the Nuggets denied the Heat from rallying. Braun was a plus-8 in his critical stretch to dramatically help Jokic and Murray.

On a night when Michael Porter Jr. again became The Invisible Man with only 2 points (1 of 7 from the field and 0-2 from the three-point area) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the starting “shooting guard,” scored only 6 points, and Jeff Green and Bruce Brown finished with just 9 points off the bench, the Nuggets had to find someone to do something. Braun grew up before the eyes of the national audience.

Meanwhile, Jokic and Murray proved themselves once more as the best one-two punch in the NBA postseason with 64 points and 20 assists of the Nuggets’ 109 points.

Aaron Gordon resurfaced after a weak Game 2 by adding a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Heat were cold, unlike in the upset in Denver. They shot a measly 37% from the field (34 of 92) and fell from grace at the three-point arc after producing 48% in the previous game. They managed just 11 of 35 (31.4%). The Nuggets were miserable from the three-point distance again (5 of 18), but made up for it in paint play with 51.2% overall. The Nuggets outrebounded the Heat by a truckload — 58-33 — and had 28 assists to 20.

Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo combined for 50 points and 19 rebounds, but their three teammates in the starting lineup — Kevin Love, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus — were missing. The three combined for 16 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists. And the heralded bench was outplayed by the Nuggets’ reserves.

This time Michael Malone got the discipline, defense and determination that he felt was lacking in both games at an elevation of 5,280 feet. Those qualities existed at 6½ feet above sea level in Miami.

The team that grabs a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Finals wins about 80% of the time. The Nuggets can make it three Friday night against the Heat, who have been sloppy at home in the playoffs. If the Nuggets again can play defense as they did Wednesday night and hold the Heat to under 100 points, this series will not reach six or seven games.

Malone, who was so critical of the Nuggets before, praised Jokic and Murray: “By far, their greatest performance as a duo in their seven years together.’’ He also praised Braun.

After the game, the Heat had to forget about it.

But the Nuggets will remember.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) and Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) put pressure on Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) in the 4th quarter of the game 3 at at the Kaseya Center in Miami during the first quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)