The Denver Nuggets Found Their Championship Gear

Nikola Jokić – A

Nikola Jokić recorded his fourth straight triple-double Thursday night as the Denver Nuggets recorded their fourth straight win by at least 15 points. He only needed five made field goals to dominate the Kings in Ball Arena. While his teammates cooked, he did the dirty work typically beneath franchise cornerstones. He focused on setting the table, meaningful screens, inhaling rebounds, and defending at a high level. His greatness is malleable and unrelenting. Unforgiving, even. The lightning is here.

Jamal Murray – A+

Lightning and munder. Nuggets fans saw a bonafide Murray Flurry in Ball Arena Thursday night. Murray scored 32 points on 13/15 from the field. It was a ruthlessly efficient and refreshingly ethical scoring performance. He shot just one free throw in the blowout. We in the Nuggets community spend much time discussing how Jokić is officiated. We rarely talk about the whistle for Murray, who does his damage differently than the typical modern guard. Grifting is now an art form in this ever-bleak league. Soulless basketball is not just rewarded but heralded, especially around the perimeter. Let’s take a moment to celebrate Murray’s propensity for high-scoring games without help from the officials. It’s objectively more fun to watch than the alternative.

The Kings started Davion Mitchell in place of the injured De’Aaron Fox. Mitchell’s a bulldog of a defender with a backfire-proof nickname — they call him ‘off-night’ in Sacramento. He might wish he had one in Denver. Murray doesn’t struggle with the smaller, strong guards. You can’t bottle him up through defensive prowess alone. It’s the longer defenders that can give him trouble. He barely noticed Mitchell.

Aaron Gordon – A+

Aaron Gordon turned in a near-immaculate performance against the Kings. He scored 17 points on 7/8 shooting, with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and zero turnovers. He finished +40. He did it all in under 25 minutes.

The Nuggets’ starters play a beautiful brand of basketball featuring IQ, finesse, and skill. That includes AG, who has nearly perfected playing power forward alongside Jokić. But he’s also the hammer. He smashes undersized defenses to pieces. And that’s part of why matching up with the Nuggets is virtually impossible. You’ve got to be tall enough, strong enough, yet potent enough offensively to hang around with a Jokić-led offense. That’s a hard team to build.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – A+

KCP was just about flawless out there. The man they call First Team picked up three more steals, each leading to a bucket.

Pope’s defense is the story of his season, but a dip in his shooting has accompanied that improvement. And so it was particularly satisfying to see KCP shoot 4/6 from three-point range against the Kings. He’s not just a defensive specialist. Pope also recorded four assists without turning it over.

Michael Porter Jr. – C+

The Nuggets got off to a rough start, and Porter played a significant role. He had chances to score early but couldn’t convert. He wasn’t engaged defensively either until Michael Malone’s first rage timeout of the evening. That woke up the Nuggets, who then turned up the defense. Porter was a part of that, too. His highlight was forcing a Keegan Murray turnover before cashing in on a transition three. It looked like Michael Porter Jr. guarding Michael Porter Jr. before draining a three on Michael Porter Jr. We might have found a great player comparison here.

Reggie Jackson – C

Jackson’s poor defense is hard to ignore. It’s tenable if he’s scoring, but not when he’s missing, and certainly not when playing alongside Jamal Murray. Their shared minutes are futile these days. To Jackson’s credit, he recorded four assists with only one turnover off the bench.

Christian Braun – D

CB struggled from the floor. His 2/8 shooting performance didn’t help matters in the non-Jokić minutes. His teammates set him up for some good looks, too. But they didn’t fall.

Peyton Watson – C–

Watson got sped up several times, as evidenced by his bench-leading two turnovers. He wasn’t a disaster, shooting 3/6 from the floor and grabbing two boards. Still, it was too quiet a night for him while the bench got waxed.

Zeke Nnaji – C-

This is an admittedly generous grade. The expectations for Nnaji are low. With that in mind, I’ll argue he still has some positive momentum after his minutes against the Kings. Despite going scoreless, he recorded one steal and three blocks. The blocks had some juice, too. He looked fired up.

As silly as it may sound, the meaner, the better for Zeke. He might benefit from playing with more anger. Turn it all — the frustration, the criticism — into motivation. Melt it down into ammunition.

Justin Holiday – F

Just Holiday did play in this game. That’s a note that I have. He didn’t make a positive impact, but the Nuggets survived a 10-man rotation on the front end of a back-to-back.