DENVER — When the Denver Nuggets were at their peak in 2023, Nikola Jokić didn’t always need to be the best player on the floor. To be clear, he was for the majority of a playoff run that ended in a championship because his game had ascended to mythical levels.
Even last season, even through the disappointment of a second-round exit, there still seemed to be more help around him, more often than not. The Nuggets were eliminated in Game 7 by the Minnesota Timberwolves. But much of that could be attributed to a Minnesota roster built expertly to deal with Jokić’s dominance, rather than Jokić coming up short.
The safety net is gone this season. We suspected as much during the regular season, when the Nuggets struggled. But, in case anyone believed that Jokić could float through a game, make mistakes and the Nuggets could still win? Monday night hit like a splash of cold water in the face.
It wasn’t that Jokić wasn’t very good in a 105-102 loss to the LA Clippers in Monday night’s Game 2 at a packed Ball Arena. It wasn’t that Jokić wasn’t the best player on the floor. It was that he was not the best player on the floor, and it’s hard to remember when that wasn’t the case.
Of course, the individual numbers were great. His seemingly nightly triple-double consisted of 26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. But, with Kawhi Leonard being otherworldly on a night where the Clippers needed a win, the Nuggets needed a better version of Jokić.
Instead, there were missed free throws. There were seven turnovers, a number that matched Leonard’s seven turnovers in Game 1. Instead, there were uncharacteristic mental errors, such as Jokić putting up a wild heave when he thought the shot clock was expiring, in what was a communication mistake with point guard Jamal Murray.
With all that Jokić has done this season in leading a Denver team short on depth, it doesn’t seem fair that the Nuggets need even more from the man who is a finalist for the league’s NBA Most Valuable Player award. But the onus for this series is clear. Denver will be hard-pressed to advance to the second round if Jokić doesn’t dominate the Clippers. And on Monday night, Jokić was very good, but he wasn’t dominant.
“It kind of felt like he and Kawhi flipped games,” Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman said. “Kawhi had seven turnovers in Game 1, and Nikola had the same and had some mistakes in Game 2. So, we’re going to have to go and watch the film and see where we are and what we can do to help him going forward.”
In a series that’s felt even and has been defined by dynamic basketball through two games, it feels like whoever can take individual control between Jokić and Leonard will give their respective teams a leg up.
On Monday night, Leonard turned in an all-time level game with his 39 points on 19 shots, an efficiency that is rarely seen at this level of basketball. What’s also true is that through two games, the Clippers have done a terrific job of taking a smidge away from Jokić in multiple areas.
Jokić is one of the most efficient players in basketball. But on Monday night, he went 8 of 16 from the field, which is good for a mere mortal, but average for Jokić. He turned over the ball seven times and was hesitant. He committed a game-changing turnover with less than a minute remaining by throwing the ball to Leonard out of a double-team, with the Nuggets having a chance to tie the game.
Sitting on the podium almost two hours after the final buzzer, dressed dapper in an all white suit, Jokić reflected on Game 2 and what the Clippers were able to accomplish against him. He’s nothing if not a perfectionist. And he knows that his performance on Monday night wasn’t good enough.
“We had 20 turnovers, and I had a lot of turnovers, especially late in the game,” Jokić said. “I had that turnover to Kawhi, where I threw him the ball. I had that turnover to Peyton (Watson), which was bad. They were aggressive defensively, attacking us and attacking the ball. They were aggressive in big moments and they rotated and they scrambled around pretty effectively.”
The challenge facing the Nuggets is the Clippers having so many terrific perimeter defenders to throw at Murray. And it wasn’t as if Murray himself didn’t play well on Monday night. He scored 23 points and dropped in multiple big shots in different spots. But LA guard Kris Dunn is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and he’s not likely to allow Murray to have one of those superstar games that have dotted his playoff career. It’s putting more onus on Jokić to get into the lane and become offensively aggressive.
But the Clippers know this. And in Game 2, they clogged the lane so effectively that Denver only scored 38 points in the paint. That represents the third-lowest total of the season for the Nuggets. LA’s plan is a good one. Clippers center Ivica Zubac is one of the few players in the league big and strong enough to make Jokić truly work for his buckets. But, beyond Zubac, the Clippers are sending a ton of double-teams at Jokić from different angles almost every time he catches the ball.
The trade-off from LA is that this strategy leaves Denver shooters wide open, particularly in the corners.
In 2023, when the Nuggets were the best team in the league and won a championship, those shooters were Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green. On Monday night, those shooters were Russell Westbrook and Christian Braun. Both of whom made shots, but they don’t have gravity, so the Clippers were content with allowing Westbrook and Braun to win or lose the game for the Nuggets.
“(Jokić’s) a tough cover,” Clippers guard James Harden said. “He’s an extremely tough cover because of his passing and scoring ability. We put a big on him and Zu (Zubac) did an unbelievable job. But, you put a big on him, and he just steps back and shoots 3s. So, you just have to try and make it as difficult as possible for him.
“We swarmed him, and I think the last two games we did a solid job, even though he got a triple-double. He’s going to get his because he’s so good. We can’t just run at him, because if we do that, he’ll just pick you apart. So, you have to be smart in how you guard him.”
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Whether or not the Nuggets need Jokić to go for 40 points or whether they need him to go for 15 assists in Game 3, Jokić said he will read and react. He knows how much attention the Clippers are paying to him and knows how much is going to be expected of him.
But the Nuggets were a confident team as Monday night bled into the wee hours of Tuesday morning. They know they were a few possessions away from taking a commanding lead in the series. They also know this is a series probably destined to last for a long time. The Clippers and the Nuggets have had a terrific first two games. They have traded haymakers. So, the Nuggets know they have to figure out a way to answer the body blow landed by LA on Monday night.
“I think we can be down 2-0 or up 2-0,” Jokić said. “This series has had a great two games, and if you are a basketball fan, this is the best basketball you can watch. We have had a competitive two games.”
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(Photo of Nikola Jokić: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)