Nuggets sprint past Cavs behind another Jokic gem

The loudest moment this season at Pepsi Center came at the 2:45 mark of Wednesday night’s third quarter.

It wasn’t after a game-winner or a thunderous dunk, or even during the three-point barrage that buried the Golden State Warriors earlier this season.

It was after a post-up.

Another all-around performance from Nikola Jokic, who finished with 16 points on a clean 8-10 shooting, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists, was highlighted by a five-second sequence on the left block, where Jokic went body-to-body with LeBron James, head-faked over his right shoulder, pivoted and took three dribbles into the paint, pinning James on his backside, turned and lofted a five-foot right-handed hook that splashed softly through the net.

“It was like a defining moment,” Michael Malone said. “LeBron will go down as one of the best players to ever play the game, and I’m biased because I coached him for five years. For Nikola, the whole crowd watching, probably anticipating what’s going to happen here. It’s like a heavyweight fight and Nikola backed him down and finished and I think the crowd erupted in celebration because it was a defining moment for Nikola.”

The play was not only a microcosm of tonight’s 126-113 Nuggets win, where Denver frustrated James, who was limited to just 18 points and finished with an eye-opening -30 plus-minus, but also Jokic’s ascension as the Nuggets’ franchise player.

After that post-up, Jokic kept piling it on Cleveland but tonight was a full team effort from Denver. The Nuggets finished with seven different players in double-figures and tallied 35 assists on 51 made baskets.

“The ball was moving,” Malone said. “We found the open man all night long. We scored 70 points in their paint.”

Will Barton contributed 20 points off the bench and Gary Harris added 19.

Kyrie Irving led Cleveland with 33 points on 11-22 shooting in just 27 minutes.

“We played great defense as a team,” Harris said. “I feel like everyone did a great job helping out. They have three great scorers on their team.”

Two early fouls sent starting power forward Mason Plumlee to the bench mid-way through the first quarter, forcing Michael Malone to go to a Faried at center look the Nuggets haven’t used in quite some time. That arrangement hasn’t given the Nuggets the greatest results this season, but Faried at the five held its own in the few minutes it was used tonight.

Part of its success has to do with how well Kenneth Faried has played this season, especially as of late. The 27-year-old seems to be playing with a different energy and focus on both ends of the floor during the later half of this regular season and it showed in tonight’s first quarter. Faried finished the frame with four points, four rebounds, and two steals.

Faried finished one of his better games of the year with 17 points and 9 rebounds and just 19 minutes.

“A big difference-maker was Kenneth Faried in that third quarter,” Malone said. “His energy, his finishing was phenomenal.”

After one, Denver led 34-31 also behind seven points in just five minutes for Will Barton.

Two one-handed absolute sledgehammers from James to start the second quelled a frenzied Pepsi Center crowd but Jamal Murray answered with back-to-back threes to put the Nuggets up by ten at the 7:31 mark of the quarter, Denver’s largest lead to that point.

Then, a potential game-changing sequence unfolded. As James, who thought he got fouled on the previous possession, lagged behind the play, Richard Jefferson struck Juancho Hernangomez across the face and was assessed a flagrant one. What followed was the completion of a 22-9 Nuggets run that pushed Denver’s lead to 14 late in the second quarter.

A full of display of the team-oriented basketball that’s made the Nuggets’ offense so successful this year was on display during the first half as Denver racked up 20 assists on 29 made first-half field goals. The Nuggets took a 73-59 lead into the break. Barton led the team in scoring with 15, followed by Murray with 13. Harris and Chandler each had ten. Irving led the Cavs at the half with 19 points on 6-11 shooting.

Cleveland’s 20-13 run to start the third, highlighted by an acrobatic Irving lay-in closed Denver’s margin to seven. But as Denver did for much of Wednesday night, they responded.

The highlight, an almost slow motion, elongated post-up that saw Jokic back down James on the left block, fake over one shoulder, turn over the right and out-muscle the Most Valuable Player candidate to a basket. Denver held an 11-point lead entering the fourth.

By then, the win was a formality. Denver cruised to a 126-110 drubbing of Cleveland, in a game many had marked as a loss heading into the matchup.

“It’s a very ecstatic locker room right now because it was a hell of a win and everybody contributed,” Malone said.

With the win, Denver moves to 1.5 games up on Portland for the eighth seed in the West.

Postgame Video