Nikola Jokic stakes his claim for an All-NBA selection

It wasn’t the prettiest performance from Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers. It certainly wasn’t his most efficient either. Jokic shot just 5-14 from the field for 15 points and was bothered by former teammate and rival big man Jusuf Nurkic for much of the evening.

But in winning time, with his team’s back against the wall and the Nuggets in a high-pressure, win-or-go-home scenario, Jokic delivered when it mattered most.

“If he’s not All-NBA, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after his team’s 88-82 win.

Jokic finished with 15 points, 20 rebounds, 11 assists and his 10th triple-double of the season.

In the fourth quarter of a game that Paul Millsap described as “beyond playoff-physical,” Jokic was masterful. The 23-year-old had five points, six rebounds and three assists in a quarter where he played all but 34 seconds. The Nuggets outscored the Trail Blazers by nine points in the period.

“To be honest, Paul was boxing out Nurk all the time, I was just taking the credit for him boxing out,” Jokic said. “I mean I’m going to take it of course. I’m going to let him do his job boxing out. I’m going to rebound.”

Nurkic, who was unhappy with his role coming off the bench behind Jokic before he was moved prior to last season’s trade deadline, dominated the paint over the game’s first two quarters. He pulled down seven rebounds in the first quarter — four of which came on the offensive glass. By halftime, Nurkic corralled more rebounds (11) than Jokic (eight) and Millsap (one) registered combined.

After an impassioned halftime speech from Malone where players said their coach gave it to them straight and stressed that they had 24 minutes left in their season, Denver outscored Portland 24-20 in the third quarter. Then the Nuggets held Nurkic, Damian Lillard, and C.J. McCollum to just 13 points on 5-17 shooting and forced the Trail Blazers into six turnovers in the deciding fourth.

The Nuggets’ latest victory was Denver’s sixth-straight win. It’s the longest win streak of the Malone era and the most consecutive games the Nuggets have won since the 2013-14 season. In the span of two weeks, Denver went from playoff afterthought to in control of its own destiny with one game remaining Wednesday in Minnesota.

The Nuggets’ six-game winning streak came against teams that are a combined 64 games over .500.

“It’s as high as it can be,” Malone said about his team’s self-belief. “I don’t know if it can get any higher.”

Jokic has carried the Nuggets back from the brink of playoff elimination to postseason contention. After he was benched in the fourth quarter of a chilling 118-107 loss in Dallas on March 6 that dropped Denver briefly out of the playoff picture, Jokic has been arguably the best big man in the league since.

In his last 17 games, Jokic is averaging 23.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists. He’s shooting 53.8 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from three. Despite Monday’s 5-14 shooting night, Jokic has hit 51 of 70 shots (72.9 percent) from the restricted area over the past month. The Nuggets have gone 11-6 over that stretch.

Jokic is fifth in NBA Real Plus-Minus behind Chris Paul, James Harden, Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. He’s on pace to be the third big man (Kevin Garnett, Wilt Chamberlain) to average 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a season. His current stat line — 18.1 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game — has only been replicated by Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain.

“If you look at his numbers right now, the numbers are a joke,” Malone said.

All jokes aside, like last season’s Dec. 15 turnaround where the Nugget recalibrated their offense around Jokic and went on to field the league’s best offense over the final four months of the regular season, this year also had a flashbulb-type moment that defined Denver’s trajectory.

“He’s our team,” Paul Millsap said of his frontcourt partner after the Nuggets’ March 9 win over the Lakers.

Since that jolt of confidence from the four-time All-Star, which came just days after Jokic had scored in single digits in three-straight games, the plodding 7-footer who once fantasized about being a stable boy has been a different player. Jokic is playing with a new-found sense of urgency on the offensive end of the floor that’s surged the Nuggets back into the playoff picture.

The competition for a spot on an All-NBA team is only reserved for the league’s elite. And Jokic belongs in the conversation. Anthony Davis will grab a spot on most voter’s ballots for Most Valuable Player and will be a lock for a first-team All-NBA selection at either forward or center. Other big men like Joel Embiid, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Al Horford also have arguments for All-NBA selections.

“He’s Nikola Jokic, we’re Denver, so nobody’s going to talk about it,” Malone said of Jokic’s stretch run.

Since Malone’s plea, Jokic earned his second Western Conference Player of the Week honors this season.

Is a spot on an All-NBA team next?