'Magic' Jokic reappears, notches another triple-double as Nuggets cool Bulls

The most common question surrounding the Nuggets coming into Tuesday night’s game was “what’s wrong with Nikola Jokic?”

It turns out, he’s just fine.

Jokic registered his third career triple-double with 19 points, 16 rebounds and ten assists in the Nuggets 125-107 win over the Chicago Bulls. Jokic was 6-10 from the field, 3-3 from 3-point land and 4-4 from the line, added one block and managed to limit himself to just one personal foul in yet another incredible stat line to add to his growing resume.

Jokic was clearly the best player on the court throughout the entire third period. The game had gone back and forth up to that point with the Nuggets answering every run by the Bulls with some hot shooting to get themselves back into it. Jokic finally asserted himself in the third, finishing the period just two assists shy of a triple-double and helping the Nuggets to a 91-83 lead that they would not relinquish.

The Nuggets shooting kept them in the game when they looked a step slower than the Bulls and, after Jokic’s third quarter outburst, helped put the nail in the coffin in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets started the game hitting just one of their seven first-quarter 3-point attempts, but finished the game shooting 43.3 percent from behind the arc on 13-30 shooting.

Danilo Gallinari added 22 points and Wilson Chandler dropped 20 as all five Nuggets starters, plus Will Barton and Jamal Murray scored in double-figures. Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade led the Bulls with 19 points apiece as Jimmy Butler was limited to just 8 points on 3-13 shooting.

Both teams came out with a lot of energy in the first quarter alternating leads throughout most of the opening 12 minutes.  From the opening tip, the Bulls looked ready to attack the rim with dribble drives and dump-offs to Robin Lopez, meanwhile the Nuggets managed to keep pace on the strength of their mid-range shooting. Perhaps most importantly though, Jokic had perhaps his best quarter of basketball since the All-Star break, putting up seven points (on 3-3 shooting), pulling down five rebounds and adding three assists in the opening period.

Turnovers became a problem for the Nuggets again in the second, and the Bulls took advantage of an apparent lack of awareness on the other end as well with a series of alley-oops, easy layups and offensive rebounds leading to a number of easy points. Denver was finally able to climb back into the lead at 52-51 on a Jameer Nelson jumper with two minutes left in the quarter, but the abundance of easy baskets was too much to overcome and the Bulls finished the half with a 59-56 lead, thanks in large part to their 15-6 advantage in points-off-turnovers and 34-14 advantage in points-in-the-paint.

Chicago again took advantage of Denver’s sluggishness to start the second half, jumping out to an eight point lead early in the period, but the Nuggets just continued to hit jumpers, fighting their way back into the lead, once again on a jumper by Nelson, assisted by Jokic to make it 76-75. The Nuggets strategy of letting Rondo take any jumper he wanted briefly backfired in the quarter as his hot shooting helped the Bulls keep pace for little while, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with the Jokic train. Jokic scored nine points, and added seven rounds and four assists in the third period alone.

The fourth quarter came down to the Nuggets hot-shooting and successive 3-pointers by Barton, Gallinari and Murray extended the Nuggets lead to 110-89 with just over seven minutes left in the game, all while Jokic rested on the bench. As soon as Jokic entered, the paint opened up and the Nuggets wings took advantage, extending the lead to 118-95 with just four minutes left. It was all over at that point and the Nuggets seem to have found their offense, and more importantly their budding superstar, once again in a 125-107 victory over the Bulls in Chicago.

Footnotes

Juan Hernangomez saw the court early in the game tonight, registering five minutes in the first half. He didn’t do a whole lot with his time, but it was nice to see him get some non-garbage time minutes.

Of the eight Nuggets that saw at least ten minutes of action, Jamal Murray had the worst field goal percentage at 44.4 percent, showing just how much of a team win this was tonight.

The newest Nugget, Roy Hibbert, saw his first action in the powder blue, as he entered in the last minute of the game.

What’s Next?

The Nuggets head to Milwaukee to close out their back-to-back road set against the Bucks