Nikola Jokic is Denver’s Tim Duncan. And even against Devin Booker, Chris Paul and the Suns, doubt Nuggets at your peril.

Jusuf Nurkic seemingly left every road open but the one back to Portland. Lonzo Ball is allegedly jockeying for the highest bidder. Meanwhile, Nikola Jokic steps in front of a camera and offers this with a straight face:

“When I came to Denver, I said that I would love to be Denver’s Tim Duncan, because he played his whole career in San Antonio.”

As we didn’t love the big lug enough already.

The quote was from an interview in Serbian to RTS, a broadcaster in the Joker’s native land. It was apparently recorded before Jokic’s historic 2020-21 regular season, the one that’s expected to make him the first Nuggets player to ever win the NBA’s MVP award. The RTS piece reportedly aired last Monday.

“God-willing,” The Joker continued in Serbian, “I would love to play my whole career in Denver.”

Enjoy this, kids. Savor every last shuffle. Before Duncan went down to Texas 24 years ago, the Spurs had never made it past a conference final. Before Jokic landed in Denver, the Nuggets had never won an NBA playoff series in three consecutive postseasons.

Yet here they are, playing with fun, reckless abandon, us-against-the-stinking-world. In a league that’s about individual parts, Denver’s strength is in the sum and the whole.

On paper, granted, the Suns’ parts are better. Phoenix should win the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals against the Nuggets in six games. Maybe five, if Devin Booker has any lighter fluid left after torching the Lakers.

But here’s the thing: The Blazers, on paper, were supposed to win against Denver, too.

Tournament basketball is about matchups, and the rosters said Portland was a nightmare. Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Norman Powell on one side, Facu Campazzo, Austin Rivers and Monte Morris on the other.

“Everybody wrote us off,” said Morris, who came off the bench to score 28 points against Portland in Game 5, then 22 in Game 6, and generally outplay McCollum. “Because everybody (doesn’t) watch Denver Nuggets basketball.”

They’re a team of Tim Duncans now. Fundamentally sound, nationally anonymous, tough, unselfish, serial winners who don’t care who gets the credit.

In college hoops, the locker room culture is molded by your upperclassmen, for better or worse. In the NBA, stars set the bar. And when your No. 1 star keeps raising it, personally and professionally, the rest of the flock tends to follow in kind.

“The mindset,” Jokic told reporters when asked about Nuggets-Suns, which opens Monday night in Phoenix, “needs to be the same as the Portland series.”

As for the calls, we’ll see. In the first round, Nurkic sulked and fouled his way out of becoming a major factor.

Suns center Deandre Ayton? Different cat. One with claws.

In the three regular-season meetings between the Nuggets and Suns, Ayton, the former No. 1 pick out of the University of Arizona, was pure kryptonite to Jokic’s Superman.

The head-to-head stats from NBA.com are jarring, especially in a season that’s seen Joker dominate darn near everyone. With Ayton defending him, Jokic shot 38.2% from the floor on 34 attempts, two of them blocked, with three turnovers and zero fouls called.

“I think he’s the player that I have the most trouble (with),” Joker told reporters this past Saturday. “He guarded me really well the whole (season).”

When Ayton wasn’t changing shots, he was altering their origin point. While the young Suns center was on the floor, only nine of Joker’s 16.7 field goal attempts, on average, came from within 9 feet or closer (54%). With no Ayton, 3.7 of Jokic’s 4.2 attempts (88%) were within 9 feet of the basket.

“He’s young, he’s physical, he’s athletic,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said of Ayton. “So we’ll have to find ways for Nikola, if he’s feeling (challenged), to give him different looks, put him in different areas of the floor, where we can look to get him comfortable and utilize all the skills that Nikola has.”

Including lobbying. Jokic drew 6.5 fouls per game in the first round, tied for third in the NBA playoffs as of Sunday morning with Kawhi Leonard, and trailing only the Booker (7.3) and Lillard (6.8).

That’s a foul called every 5.4 minutes on the floor, up from one every 7.16 minutes in the 2020 playoff bubble and one every 6.96 minutes during the 2019 postseason. All while the Joker’s played fewer playoff minutes per game in 2021 (35.2) than either of the previous two postseasons (36.5 and 39.7, respectively) so far.

“Ain’t nobody,” Nuggets forward JaMychal Green said of Jokic, “that can stop him one-on-one.”

When you’re a team of Tim Duncans, respect, God-willing, comes quietly. And it’s earned. The hard way.

Source: Read Full Article