RJ Hampton raced down the Ball Arena floor late Wednesday night and erected his newest piece of living room wall art: a poster of the 20-year-old dropping a one-handed sledgehammer dunk on Cedi Osman’s head. One minute earlier, fellow rookie Zeke Nnaji converted a powerful right-handed slam of his own.
But neither highlight elicited the reaction from Michael Malone that an elementary dribble hand-off between Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. did.
Porter and Jokic locked eyes with two minutes left in the third quarter of the Nuggets’ 133-95 win over the Cavs. Jokic took two dribbles towards Porter on the left wing, paused at the elbow, and waited for the Nuggets’ forward. Porter peeled off Jokic’s shoulder and fired a 12-foot jumper that rattled through the rim.
When Porter’s shot dropped, Malone let off a two-handed fist pump from his coaches box on the opposite end of the floor that he made sure both Porter and Jokic saw as they ran back on defense.
“Well-executed play,” Malone said of the sequence. “The timing was right, the read was right. We winded up knocking down the shot. Just really good basketball.”
Simple, sound and smooth. The dribble-hand-off was symbolic of Porter’s night. It wasn’t overly flashy, like many of Porter’s standout moments from his Nuggets tenure have been. But it was an example of Porter playing within Denver’s attack and as a link in the Nuggets’ offensive chain.
Over his last five games, Porter was not that. He was an outsider and an outcast trying to pick his spots and fit around Jokic. Porter floated through games and his confidence waned. He averaged just 8.8 points on 38.1% shooting over his past five outings as Denver dropped four of its last five games.
It certainly seemed like the Nuggets placed a priority on getting Porter involved from the first quarter against the Cavs. Porter and Jokic have played 274 minutes together this season, but their third-quarter dribble hand-off was only the third DHO this year between the two that ended in a Porter basket and the first since Denver’s third game of the season. There were countless examples of healthy Nuggets offense featuring Porter earlier in the game too.
Porter had six baskets vs. the Cavs. Four were assisted by Jokic. The offensive synergy that the two showed Wednesday was a far cry from what transpired throughout Denver’s loss to Milwaukee earlier this week where Jokic was clearly frustrated by Porter on multiple occasions.
“Nikola sees me working every day. He knows how hard I work,” Porter said. “I think he expects a lot of me. Me and Nikola’s relationship, a lot of it is him getting on me, knowing I can be better. I don’t take that personally. I’m my biggest critic, I know I can be better, especially when I have bad games. We’ve got a good relationship on the court. He expects a lot from me. He wants me to help him out there. That’s what I’ve got to try to do.”
Porter scored 19 points against the Cavs on a clean 6-10 shooting. It wasn’t his highest-scoring game of the season — not even close — but it was his most complete. Based on his recent string of poor play, it might have been his most important game too.
Porter shot it well and went 4-7 from three-point range. He also spaced the floor effectively, cut well off the ball, let the game come to him, and finished with two assists. Defensively, Porter was engaged throughout his 28 minutes, made several crisp defensive rotations, and finished with two steals and two blocks.
His night ended after the third-quarter buzzer when Porter walked towards the Nuggets bench and was greeted with a firm handshake from his coach.
With the entire team present in the Nuggets’ locker room postgame, Malone singled out Porter and heaped praise on his all-around play.
“I thought he played a great game,” Malone said. “Michael’s had games where he’s put up big numbers for us. But I thought tonight, Michael played a complete basketball game.”
The performance gave Porter a blueprint for how to approach the remainder of the first half of the regular season. Like he already has twice over his first 14 games, Porter can still score 30 on any given night. And there will certainly be nights when Denver needs that type of production.
But more crucial to the Nuggets’ playoff ceiling this season will be his ability to fit and mesh with Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Denver’s offense and to keep finding ways to impact the game without scoring.
Porter’s zeroing in on that conclusion too. He said postgame that his job as a starter when playing with Jokic, Murray, Will Barton and other capable bucket-getters isn’t necessarily just to score. It’s to impact the game in all areas.
Porter stated earlier this season that he has no desire to be a “one-dimensional” player. As he showed Wednesday, he wants to be much, much more.
“For me, it’s not letting scoring determine my energy on the defensive end. I think that’s what I did tonight that I kind of liked,” Porter said about playing alongside Denver’s starters. “I just felt like I was locked in the whole game, didn’t have too many lapses. That’s progress.
“Just not basing a good game off of scoring. I only shot it three times in the first half, but that’s OK as long as my team’s doing good. I can affect the game in other ways.”
