Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic‘s first two matchups against his former teammate Jusuf Nurkic didn’t go exactly to plan.
Last season’s March 28 loss in Portland was perhaps the toughest defeat of the Nuggets’ 2016-17 campaign. Nurkic played the best game of his career and laid 33 points and 15 rebounds on Denver. The Trail Blazers took a one-game lead for the eighth seed in the Western Conference and never looked back. Jokic posted 17 points and eight rebounds but was outmatched by his one-time frontcourt partner.
This season’s late-November matchup — the first of four meetings between the two teams this season — followed a similar script. Denver lost by 17, Jokic struggled, scored just six points and could never assert himself on offense against the Blazers’ front line.
But something was different about Jokic-Nurkic III Friday night at Moda Center — an arena where Denver hadn’t seen its name on the winning side of the scoreboard since 2013 when Anthony Randolph was still a key rotation piece off the bench for the Nuggets.
From the moment referee Tom Washington threw the jump ball, Jokic played with an edge. Nuggets’ coach Michael Malone played Jokic the entire first quarter. He finished with eight points, three rebounds, and two assists in those 12 minutes. Jokic was engaged, focused, and had a sense of determination that you sometimes don’t see out of the soft-spoken Serbian.
Some of what Jokic did Friday is difficult to quantify. He sprinted down the court with his dribble instead of jogging. He ran Denver’s offense with pace and charged into dribble-hand-offs with Gary Harris. He looked to score nearly every time in the post, especially when Portland tried to body him with Ed Davis or reserve big man Zach Collins. Jokic rolled with a purpose after setting screens and was physical with defenders.
After one second-quarter post up on Davis — Jokic’s third bucket of the game — he signaled to his teammates to “run it back.”
Jokic’s signature basket from Friday night’s win came midway through the second quarter where he received the ball at the three-point arc, took two dribbles and planted a subtle elbow into Nurkic’s side that launched him towards the basket. Jokic finished with a dunk — just his fifth of the season.
His heat-check came in the second quarter when he launched a Dirk Nowitzki-esque one-footed jumper from the top of the key in Nurkic’s grill. In the second half, three of Jokic’s four baskets came with Nurkic defending. Jokic also played most of the second half with four fouls.
“For the first time (he took it personally),” Malone said of Jokic and the matchup against Nurkic on Altitude TV’s post-game broadcast. “Especially in the second half. To start the game, they weren’t matched up a lot because of their lineup. In the second half, they put Nurk on him, and I was really curious to see what happened because, in the past, Nikola had not been as aggressive as he needed to be. Tonight, I think he got over a mental block. He went out there and attacked, was so effective all over the floor scoring, rebounding, and playmaking.”
The rest of Jokic’s teammates fed off his energy. Wilson Chandler turned in his best game of the season. The Nuggets’ starting small forward has been a rock for Denver on defense this year but attacked the basket from the first quarter on and finished with a season-high 21 points. Gary Harris checked C.J. McCollum for 34 minutes and limited him to 15 points on 7-18 shooting. After playing just six minutes in Denver’s first meeting this season with Portland, center Mason Plumlee started for a second-straight game and was the Nuggets’ defensive anchor. Plumlee’s five blocks — two of which came on Nurkic — set the tone on that end of the floor.
Portland wasn’t at full strength with Damian Lillard, whose presence could have swung the matchup in the opposite direction, out with an injury. Denver didn’t have its full roster, either, with Paul Millsap not expected to return to the lineup until after the All-Star break.
But this win, which is just the Nuggets’ sixth victory in 18 tries away from Pepsi Center this year, was significant. Denver got a win in a place where they had lost nine straight. The Nuggets held Portland to just 85 points. Denver also overcame some late-game adversity when the Trail Blazers cut their lead to 10 and visions of the Nuggets’ recent late-game debacles against Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota suddenly became top of mind.
Jokic bested Nurkic on a night when all eyes were on him and led Denver over a divisional rival. He finished with 27 points, hit two threes, recorded nine rebounds, six assists and was a game-high plus-29. Vintage Jokic numbers. Nurkic struggled, scored just 10 points and only recorded one rebound. He was minus-28 in 24 minutes.
Basketball isn’t an individual sport, but for most of Friday’s win, it sure seemed like it. The two bigs battled. They fought back and forth, and Jokic came out on top, for the first time in three tries.
