Nikola Jokic nights ends with 22 points, 14 rebounds, 17 assists, +36 while fighting rust
https://www.espn.com.au/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401810607
On the contrary, his backup Jonas Valancuinas was -15 in his backup minutes q
Insane performance from Jokic. That run at the start of the 4th was nuts. Could not put a foot wrong.
When he has the confidence to take on guys in the post again (he might have to after the Murray injury) this offense is gonna take tf off because he controlled this game from start to finish while being hesitant to back down actual Jokic food Nick Richards and Guerschon Yabusele down low
Decided the game there , made it look easy
He was everywhere on defense too
+36 with Jokic on, -20 with him off. Insane.
Welcome to the last 6 years of Nuggets basketball.
They literally just played about 15 games at 50+ win pace without Jokic.
Agreed they did much better than we expected but they also did play 10 straight games vs the east and they had a negative net rating in the 16 games he missed.
Such a dumb comment lol they had by far the easiest part of their schedule and while they overperformed thinking that is a 50 win team is insane
Against very bad competition, with quite a few flukey wins
Net rating was -20 per game on that stretch
Is that good
I got crushed with downvotes for saying the Nuggets were in fact not a great team without Jokic by people saying ‘wins are wins’. We can do a tiny bit smarter analysis than that
They played mostly garbage teams.
Except when he was injured and completely out, somehow they figured out how to win plenty of games
Best depth ever + Adelman is a great coach. Spencer and Watson taking leaps plus Murray having a career year.
Still, the offense can be all over the place without Jokic or Murray, like with Shai and Thunder.
It was actually nice to see them running sets/plays during those Jokic-less games, props to Adelman. If it was Malone, it would just be Murray dribbling the air out of the ball with everyone else just standing around.
Going from Murray hero ball to him getting 10 assists like every other game has been great to watch.
Still does hero ball from time to time tho.
Hes earned a little hero ball as a treat
A little head room, if you will
Against very bad competition, and even then took flukey wins.
Their depth is killed from all the injuries at this point.
Back to the same old nuggets of old lol
Pick up draft depth in off-season.
Have equal amount of players out at all times to offset.
No net change.
And people were saying maybe he was over rated after the nuggets did decent without him. Lol.
Turns out playing the nets, wizards, bucks (without Giannis) is a bit easier than other teams
Don’t remember every game but Celtics and Sixers were good wins, no?
Nick nurse actively trying to lose a game by not playing through Embiid in the 2nd half is more of an embarrassment for them. Nuggets had a 6’9 mid defender at center for 5 minutes and they did nothing to take advantage of it
I didn’t say Sixers were perfect, I meant they were a decent, healthy team.
Not really, Embiid has become much better recently. He was not healthy
Yeah those were very impressive hustle wins. Especially the Sixers game as it was all 3rd stringers
Giannis played in both games against the Nuggets
The math works though
Passed Oscar for 2nd all time and would have passed Russ this year if he wasn’t injured
He could still do it, plenty of games left as he damn near does it every game.
He would need to get 26 triple-doubles in 29 games assuming Russ doesn’t get any more. That won’t happen, but it’ll probably happen before the mid-point of next season
In almost half as many games as Russ. I know stats are inflated now but holy cow that’s insane
Russ was a stat padder, he was jumping over teammates to grab the rebound and chased missing bucket or assist often to team’s detriment.
Points are inflated. Rebounds and assists are not.
Nice to see Jokic taking it easy as he returns from injury.
Just another day at the office
Joker is back fellas.
[removed]
Gratuitous emoji usage honestly
Embarrassing some may say
Thanks for the giggle
I’m here all week
We had a moment. Lets not get weird
And now its weird
Jonas will be fine. He’s just going through a phase.
Yeah people I were watching with were hating on him like crazy. I thought Bruce Brown was beyond washed after he had a bunch of shitty games but he’s totally turned it around again. Jonas will too.
Yeah I understand the frustration but he’s just going through a slump. It happens
Anyone else’s favorite player drops this and it’s got 4k upvotes in half an hour
There seems to be a joker hate campaign atm, comments all over the place are shitting on him/his fans and waiting for any opportunity.
Just the other day they were saying he’s completely washed and not even close to MVP caliber because even though he went 31/14/something, he was building a house from the 3 pt line.
Bricks some 3s in one game and suddenly he’s the most overrated dogshit in human history according to reddit
Jokic fans are a bit precious, he’s usually universally praised, god forbid he cops a bit of criticism for a bad performance. It wasn’t that dramatic
17 assists is outrageous.
The game felt tight the entire way. I cant believe he eas near +40 with how the bulls shot the 3. I dont think I’ve seen anything like this
It was legit just a game of handily winning when Jokic was on and choking away the leads when he was off. Not even glazing, Joker felt 100% in control of the game when he was out there, even put up a rare incredible defensive performance.
Box score watchers wont see it, but great defensive game from him. Multiple efforts of a lot of possessions. Limited those blow by buckets to only a handful and was a presence under the rim tonight. Turned it up in the 4th. He is slowly returning to form, but still has much room to get to his best player in the world status
Even on the box score alone 4 blocks and a steal is tough work. His contests were great and the effort was really there.
hella deflections
Jokic has started playing way more defense this year. He is also always telling his teammates to hack. Guy is actively trying to turn into the Thunder, it’s very interesting to watch. The Nuggets get a much better whistle when they start hacking early.
Offense, defense, playmaking—when he’s on the court, he is a system unto himself.
Joker might be pretty good at this basketball thing
JOKIC IS BACK BABY
MVP
not with Shai having the season he’s having
disqualified due to games missed unfortunately
Not yet. Not saying he will win but he’s still not dq’d
It’s inevitable, like the sun rising tmrw
Not yet!
A plus-minus of +36, dominant on both ends of the floor—undoubtedly the MVP.
nah Shai can have MVP, pre-injury was an insane run, but unless he goes insane post ASB, it’s Shai’s
undoubtedly only if you’re a Stan who doesn’t notice the other guy having a historic season with the first seed
That would be the case if it were true but actually it’s not true
The non-jokic minutes in this game were terrible… i admit i thought we will loose.
Thats normal but there was a stretch there in the 4th were he sat and the Nuggets started pulling away. I dont even think he needed to be subbed back in
He subbed in because Murray was injured..JV was not in a good moon yesterday so without Murray the risk was just too great
Joker coming for Westbrook
His impact on basketball games needs to be studied.
5 stocks - DPOY back on the menu
yeah I posted about this as well, it’s really cool especially his on-off
Joker’s first triple double was on 2/3/17
3,291 days later & he’s surpassed Oscar Robertson
Insane performance tonight
Don’t forget the 4 blocks
Incredible numbers. A goat !
It is CRAZY. We cant call this tripple double. It is bigger.
Is the rust in the room with us?
Fighting rust doing a lot of work lmao
If he’s having trouble with rust someone get the man some damn WD40
Was valancuinas a foul magnet on his other teams?
Magnificent performance.
While fighting rust? C’mon man, I a Jokic Stan too, but delete that part, making him and us look ridiculous
Maybe our center being 6’7 factored in to that. The all guard lineup continues the tank
Bulls all guard lineups was the reason they were up until the 4th
That’s the first thought, but then you watch Big Val who struggled to get rebounds tonight and you’re reminded oh maybe Jokic is just really good lol
Yeah Bulls were torching us and somehow getting offensive boards every other possession when Val was in. I’m confident if we had any big man who isn’t Wemby we get slammed.
Jokic cooks 7 footers all the time though… so…?