LOS ANGELES — Nikola Jokic On Saturday night, he bobbed his head to the rhythm of Serbian hip hop in his locker room, a slight smile on his lips. He eventually pressed pause and discussed a number of topics with the media. All the while, the smirk never left his face.
One evening when the Denver Nuggets defeated the the Los Angeles Lakers 124-114 in front of a national television audience, Jokić showed once again that his basketball prowess currently has no equal. He finished with 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as Denver won for a sixth straight game, tying his season high. Jokić and co-star Jamal Murray dominated the final five minutes, sending another message to the league. In a regular season that has more parity than last year, in a season that has seen a lot of excellent and competitive basketball, the Nuggets are the proverbial cream rising to the top. They are still the champions. They are always the best, until proven otherwise. They play with energy and concentration. They play basketball with a purpose.
The Nuggets came out of the All-Star break thriving. They defend at a high level. Jokić and Murray are locked up. The veteran actors play their roles well. And now they’re a half-game out of the top seed in the Western Conference and trending upward.
“It doesn’t matter who we play,” Denver head coach Michael Malone said. “We know we have to play well, especially at this time of year. We lost three in a row before the break, and I’m just impressed with our mindset heading into the second half of the season. We stood up for Washington. We got up to Portland And Golden State And so on. We’re playing the right way this time of year and our guys are locked in no matter who the opponent is. We know we have to find our rhythm, and if the last six games are any indication, I think we’re heading in the right direction.
The Nuggets know this is the time to turn on the regular season afterburner, especially as the playoffs approach. It’s a slightly different team than last season that won the title, especially without Bruce Brown and no Jeff Green. But overall they are just as good, mainly due to the development of young attackers. Peyton Watson And Christian Braunwho were able to nicely complete the core of the starting five.
Where things are different for the Nuggets this season is the landscape around them. The Western Conference last season ended in March, and Denver essentially made it to the finish line of the regular season, had fresh legs for the playoffs, and headed to a championship. THE Minnesota Timberwolves were not impressive last season. They are this year. Oklahoma City was still a growing team last season. This year they achieved the promise many expected them to and imposed it on their opposition. THE Los Angeles Clippers suffered from injury last season and did not have a squad including James Harden. They could head into the playoffs relatively healthy and stocked with stars.
Denver has had to deal with the changes around them, battling fatigue carried over from last year’s title run, while dealing with various Murray injuries. But what these last six games have shown is that the Nuggets have equipment that certainly no one in the Western Conference seems capable of matching. It’s the equipment of a stingy defense that knows exactly how to make stops, coupled with an offense that few teams can generate stops against.
In essence, this is what separated Denver and the Lakers on Saturday night. The Nuggets knew exactly what they wanted to do and the Lakers made fun of it on crucial possessions. Regardless of who shot the ball in the final five minutes, the Nuggets started every possession with the ball in the hands of Jokić or Murray. The Lakers, on multiple possessions, put the ball in the hands of Austin Reaves.
The subtle things that win games, Denver does it all. And there’s a championship swagger about the Nuggets that’s very reminiscent of the summit San Antonio Spurs years of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Like those Spurs, these Nuggets play you 48 minutes of great, disciplined basketball, if you want to beat them. These Nuggets don’t let you down with turnovers, bad shooting or bad offensive sets. This is why their offensive attack is the best in the league.
Against the Lakers, Denver scored on its final eight possessions, baskets that carried enough weight to ultimately collapse Los Angeles on a night when LeBron James became the first player in NBA just to eclipse 40,000 points. Against the Lakers, the Nuggets made eight of their final nine shots from the field in the final five minutes and did so without committing a turnover. Of course, defense is an important part of any equation. But when a team is as efficient offensively as the Nuggets, it puts immense pressure on teams to respond. And ultimately, like the Lakers on Saturday night, most teams end up lacking offensive responses.
“I think we trust our offense in big moments,” Murray said. “But I also think when you can make saves and then go down and score, that’s a really important piece to have. It helps to really know what we want to do.
Before the start of the season, Murray said Athleticism that he knew a difficult season was coming, as the hunted team rather than the hunter. But he also said the hope is that the Nuggets peak around March.
It proved almost prophetic. The Nuggets have struggled in spots. They had to face adversity. And they undoubtedly had a tougher time with the regular season than last year.
But if a six-game winning streak proves nothing else, it’s that Denver is stuck when it needs to be. THE Phoenix Suns And Boston Celtics looming this week for the Nuggets and will offer different styles to test themselves against. Denver knows it’s that time of year. And the rest of the NBA knows it’s going to be tough to beat the Nuggets four times when it really counts.
(Photo: Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)
