Nikola Jokic on NBA media elites deserting Nuggets bandwagon: “I’ve been an underdog my whole life, to be honest”

Hey, Nikola Jokic heard that panicked, scrambling sound, too.

You know, the stampede of national pundits falling all over one another to try and hop off the Nuggets bandwagon after Jamal Murray’s season-ending knee injury.

“I mean, (I’ve been) an underdog my whole life, to be honest,” the Nuggets’ All-Star center said late Wednesday night after racking up his 15th triple-double of the season to pace Denver’s 123-106 rout of Miami.

“And I’m kind of used to it. It’s (a) normal option for me.”

For a few weeks, the Nuggets — the cow town, flyover, uncool Nuggets — were the darlings of the coastal media cognoscenti. The NBA media king-makers loved Denver’s addition of forward Aaron Gordon and center JaVale McGee at the trade deadline. While the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets were beat up as all heck, the Nuggets reeled off eight wins in a row coming out of the March 25 deadline day.

Only this past Tuesday, the music stopped.

When the team announced Murray, the Nuggets point guard who became a national star at the 2020 NBA bubble in Orlando, had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, those same coastal media elites headed for the exits.

And you know what?

The Joker won’t miss ‘em.

“And (it) gives us a lot of kind of relief,” explained Jokic, whose Nuggets (35-20) snapped a two-game losing skid and visit Houston (14-41) on Friday.

“We’re not going to be tense. We’re just going to play.”

The Nuggets appeared to be loose and limber against the Heat, outscoring Miami by 16 in the second quarter to take control of the contest. After some shaky defensive moments early on, the evening was among the most satisfying in recent memory for coach Michael Malone, especially coming off of Murray’s shocking fall in San Francisco.

Denver got star turns from the “big three” in the starting five — Jokic (17 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists), Michael Porter Jr. (25 points, 10 boards) and Aaron Gordon (16 points, nine rebounds, three assists) — and balance across the board, with six players pouring in 11 points or more.

“We’ve got 16-17 games (to figure out) how we want to play,” Jokic said of the new-look Nuggets rotation. “We need to build. It’s not going to happen in a moment. We need to build it and hopefully we can do it as best that we can.”

For one game, at least, Malone’s first attempt at adjusting to life without the Blue Arrow amounted to moving the other pure point guards on the roster — Monte Morris and Facundo Campazzo — up a slot on the depth chart.

Malone started Morris, who posted 11 points, three boards and two assists. Campazzo, who’d started at the point last week while Morris was on a minutes restriction, chipped in eight points and five dimes off the bench.

The Nuggets’ second unit proved to be superlative against the Heat, especially from long distance. Thanks to Campazzo (two treys), forward JaMychal Green (four 3-point makes, 17 points) and guard PJ Dozier (three treys, 15 points), Denver’s bench outscored its South Florida counterparts, 48-34.

“They need to fill some big shoes (with) Jamal,” Jokic said of the Nuggets’ backcourt depth. “But they don’t need to score (like him). They can affect the game in some other ways.”

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