DNVR Player Grades: the seven

On the seventh day, sources tell me the Lord rested. Wouldn’t that be nice, Nikola Jokić must be thinking to himself. The Denver Nuggets franchise player has moved mountains in January and the start of February, without the benefit of much rest.

The Injury Bug swarm has reached biblical proportions in Denver. On Wednesday night in Utah, following a trade that shipped three active players out of the rotation, Jokić was asked to carry six active teammates to a win on the road in the second night of a back-to-back. Three of those six are former G League players, one of them is named Vlatko Cancar, and another had a historically bad shooting night.

The Nuggets won 98-95. 

Behind one of, if not the best regular-season games of Jokić’s career, ‘The Seven’ returned from the wrong side of the mountains with one of the best wins for any team all season—their third such win in five games.

The Nuggets are in perhaps their most brutal stretch of schedule this season, given the circumstances. They weren’t supposed to survive these injuries and these opponents without some combination of up to three starters and a key bench player. But the Nuggets don’t back down. Sometimes they go cold from deep. Sometimes they lose to a team they shouldn’t. But this team never stops playing hard and never stops playing to win.

Denver doesn’t stand a chance in this game unless their best player drops 30-21-10 on the reigning Defensive Player of the Year’s head, but they don’t win it either without some critical contributions from the remaining roster.

Jamal Murray was sensational in his second game back from injury, and was clearly in pain and inhibited on the court. But he balled out, pushing all of the right buttons, taking all of the right shots, and even freeing up his center with a couple of mean screens on Rudy Gobert. It was a gutsy performance.

Torrey Craig, much maligned for his offensive deficiencies, is tailor-made for such a game. Few players play harder, and almost none played harder in Utah. For the second straight matchup with the Jazz, Craig shut down the technically former Nugget Donovan Mitchell. He emptied the tank. 

300 Spartans once stood their ground at the Battle of Thermopylae, holding out for as long they could, long enough to weave their legend into history. Seven Nuggets stood their ground at the battle in Utah, long enough to give themselves a shot at an improbable win in the final minutes.

Zack Snyder won’t make any movies about the latter. No one outside of Denver or Utah will remember this in a week. But this is the best win of the Micahel Malone era, and the cherry on top to one of the best stretches we’ve seen from any center in NBA history. 

You need to have one of the guys for but a chance to win it all in this league. The Nuggets might have the only guy in the world who gave them a chance to win in Utah. Jokić is ascending, and with no ceiling in sight.

Let’s go to the grades:

Honor Roll

Nikola Jokić – A+

I should have slept. I knew it last night, I knew it as the night became the morning, and I knew it as my alarm went off a few hours later. But I couldn’t sleep. I could do nothing but rewatch the full highlights of Jokić’s transcendent performance. Jokić became the 10th ever player to post at least 30 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. By my count, he’s for sure the first to do it with Vlatko Cancar playing 16 minutes alongside him. According to ESPN’s Stats and Info department, 14 of Jokić’s 24 attempts came with Gobert as the primary defender. He hit 13 of them.

We’re running out of things to say and ways to describe his impact. Jokić is the best big man on the planet. He’s one of the best players in the world. And we might still be underrating him.

First Team All-NBA. Again. And that’s a lock.

Jamal Murray – A

The only shame in Jokić’s game is that it might overshadow one of the most impressive performances of Murray’s career. He’s still in pain as he nurses a sprained ankle. Murray hobbled last night, but he put in 42 minutes of playing time, and the Nuggets needed every second of it. Murray put up 31 points, hitting four of his nine attempts from deep, all four the type of shots we hope to see him add to his shot profile. Murray fought for rebounds, screened for Jokić, scored when they needed him to, and willed them to a victory alongside his All-Star center.

Torrey Craig – A-

Inevitably, a former G-Leaguer like Craig wouldn’t shut down Mitchell for a second consecutive game. And especially not in this game. Surely, Mitchell was due to go off. Right?

Wrong. Mitchell was 8-0f-24 from the field, thanks to the efforts of Craig and Harris. If chasing around such a dynamic scorer all night was draining, it didn’t show, as Craig had enough in the tank to grab 12 rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

He was born for games like this. 

The Class

Monte Morris – B

Morris started at point guard and logged 41 minutes. He was 7-of-12 from the floor for 15 points and added three assists. In Monte we trust.

Vlatko Cancar – B-

Vlatko only took three shots in his career-high 16 minutes, staying committed to a “know your role” approach. He scored four points, grabbed four rebounds, and set an uncountable amount of screens. Cancar plays NBA basketball the way I played pickup in Middle School—not necessarily lot to offer, yet very eager to please. This B- comes on a curve. That curve is he has almost no business logging 16 minutes in a close win over a division rival.

PJ Dozier – C+

Dozier has a lot to offer defensively. He logged three steals in the win, reiterating the point his very existence seems suggest—it’s nice to have a huge point guard. I’ve grown used to his length and nack for disruption on the court. We’ll see how Dozier’s role changes going forward with the impending addition of Shabazz Napier.

The Principal’s Office

Gary Harris – D

Harris played well on defense. But he was 0-for-13 from the floor in 38 minutes. 0-for-13. We can’t pretend this isn’t happening.