Nikola Jokic didn’t bother to make sure he was in front of a television when the Western Conference All-Star reserves were announced.
In fact, he didn’t get wind that he’d been selected to his second-consecutive All-Star game until he was on his way to the arena for the Nuggets’ Thursday night matchup against the Utah Jazz. Teammate Juancho Hernangomez informed him of the news via text message.
“It’s a nice accomplishment for me and of course my teammates and my coaches, and my family, they’ll all go with me to everything. So it’s not just my accomplishment,” Jokic said a few hours later at Pepsi Center. “And of course I thank everybody who voted for me, coach and my teammates.”
Jokic missed out on being selected as a starter but Michael Malone didn’t have to whip any All-Star votes by mailing bottles of wine to his fellow coaches, a tactic that Malone said used to be deployed by some around the league to get a particular player into the February showcase. Jokic was a shoo-in to get voted in as a reserve despite the narrative that a particular TNT commentator has tried to push that the big man was too inconsistent to make the All-Star roster. If Charles Barkley needed any evidence that Jokic was indeed worthy of his second All-Star game selection, he just had to tune in to the game Thursday that he was working which was broadcasted on his own employer’s network.
Jokic was magnificent in the Nuggets’ 106-100 win over Rudy Gobert and the Jazz, finishing with 28 points on 11 of 29 shooting, four rebounds and 10 assists. He went at the reigning Defensive Player of the Year who had a night of his own (21 points on 9 of 10 shooting, 11 rebounds and three blocks) throughout the Nuggets’ 106-100 win but saved his best for the fourth quarter.
Jokic tallied 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting in seven fourth-quarter minutes to clinch Denver’s 33rd win of the season after the Nuggets reeled off a 27-1 run to take control of the game spanning the end of the third into the fourth quarter.
He scored 11-straight and all but one of Denver’s final 12 points to close the game over the last five minutes of regulation as the Jazz — and mainly Jordan Clarkson, who finished with a game-high 37 points, 24 of which came in the fourth — was mounting their comeback.
“He’s a First Team All-NBA center for a reason,” Michael Malone said. “He wins games, he hits game-winning shots, and he makes the right play.”
Jokic was a lock to represent the Nuggets in Chicago for the Feb. 16 All-Star game which will come in front of a bit of a hometown crowd. Chicago, Jokic said, is home to the second-highest population of Serbians in the world behind Belgrade, Serbia’s capital.
“It’s going to be an honor to represent my country,” he said.
But at times earlier this season it didn’t look like Jokic was All-Star bound. He suffered through one of the worst offensive slumps of his career to end November when he scored in single-digits in three-straight games. Denver was winning — the Nuggets were 13-5 at the time — and Jokic was putting up a respectable 15-point 10-rebound, 6-assist stat line. But he wasn’t playing like the force he was in the playoffs last April.
“I’m struggling right now,” Jokic said after the Nuggets fell 105-96 to the Lakers on Dec. 3. “I cannot make shots. So it is what it is. Even when I’m not making shots I think I can affect the game in other ways.”
Jokic’s All-Star bid picked up steam over the next week. Denver got an easy win in New York over the Knicks and Jokic began to fill the boxscore, in a similar fashion to how he did in the playoffs. He tallied 30 points and 10 rebounds against the Celtics and then 24 points, 11 rebounds and six assists two nights later in Brooklyn.
The Nuggets recalibrated around Jokic during that stretch in the season too. Prior to Denver’s home loss to the Lakers, Jokic sported a 24.4 Usage Percentage and was averaging 92.1 touches and six post-ups per game. In Denver’s 30 games since his usage has spiked to 27.9%, his touches per game 98.9, and his post-ups to 9.3 per game, per NBA.com/stats.
His stat line over the last two months is gaudy: 22.4 points (53.4 FG%, 38.1 3P%), 9.8 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. Jokic has also elevated his game with the Nuggets down two and at times three starters over the last several weeks and helped Denver go 18-7 since his frontcourt partner Paul Millsap started to miss time with a knee injury.
“You never know when you’re slump’s going to happen,” Will Barton told DNVR. “It could be at the start of the season, it could be at the middle of the season, it could be at the end of the season. It’s a long season. Everyone’s going to go through times when they’re missing shots and not playing as well as they want to or what people expect. I never thought nothing of it. I never thought nothing of it. And now he’s back to being him.”
Thursday night Denver was shorthanded again and without four of their top-9 players. Jamal Murray (left ankle sprain) missed eighth-straight game. Millsap (left knee contusion/strain) missed his 12th-straight game. Mason Plumlee (right cuboid injury) sat for a fifth-straight matchup. Gary Harris, who had just returned to the Nuggets’ lineup after missing five-straight games with a right adductor strain, was back home in Indiana for the birth of his first child, a baby boy.
Jokic put together one of his best performances of the season.
Even on a brutal back-to-back — Denver’s fourth of the month — and with an early-morning charter flight to Milwaukee waiting at Denver International Airport for the Nuggets’ arrival, Jokic made the media wait.
Earlier this season, around the time when he broke out of his November swoon, Jokic began lifting weights after each game even on back-to-backs. That’s right. Even late Thursday night after logging 35 minutes and battling with Gobert all night long, Jokic ascended the set of stairs just off the Nuggets’ locker room that lead to Pepsi Center’s second floor. There, he took part in his customary postgame lifting session with Hernangomez and Malik Beasley and under the guidance of head strength and conditioning coach Felipe Eichenberger.
The results speak for themselves. Jokic is leaner and quicker on the court than he was at the beginning of the season.
“He’s been putting a lot of time in and when I look at him it looks like he’s lost a lot of weight,” Malone said earlier in December.
It’s been an important development throughout Jokic’s fifth NBA season. He found success in the playoffs last year and was struggling to recapture that momentum to open this season. So he made a change and adopted a new routine along with a new diet that’s helped set him on a similar track, the same one that he rode to a fourth-place finish in Most Valuable Player Voting last year.
Jokic’s counting numbers look identical to last season’s averages.
On the court against the Jazz Jokic was locked in as he’s been all season, but it wasn’t a flawless first quarter by any means. Jokic’s first shot of the game on the Nuggets’ opening possession was blocked by Royce O’Neale and resulted in a turnover. On Denver and Jokic’s second possession of the game he tried to take Gobert off the dribble from the three-point line and again was sent away at the rim, this time by Utah’s seven-footer. Jokic then turned the ball over a few minutes later. But he kept going at Gobert and Utah’s frontline and wasn’t discouraged by a few opening gaffes. Jokic racked up five assists on the Nuggets’ first seven field goals.
Just as impressive as his offensive (and defensive night) turned out to be, Jokic’s leadership was something Malone made sure to cite after Denver moved to 7-0 in the Northwest Division and registered what he said “might be” the Nuggets’ best win of the year.
“Every huddle he was talking to his guys. That’s invaluable. To be a positive reinforcement, even when he wasn’t one of the five guys in the game, encouraging guys, telling them to defend, telling them to rebound, helping P.J. (Dozier) and some of the younger players out.”
Late in the fourth quarter, Jokic spent the first 5-10 seconds on two-straight possessions motioning at his teammates to space the floor around the three-point arc so he could work out of the high pick-and-roll with Monte Morris. The Nuggets came away with points on five of the game’s final six possessions Thursday.
“He’s realizing this is his team,” Barton said. “And he’s taking over.”
Why didn’t he take up a leadership role earlier in the year?
“I just didn’t want to do it,” Jokic declared.
Now, he’s careful to pick his spots.
“If I see something I am going to say something, but I don’t want to give wrong information or something. So if I say something I want to truly make sure it’s good information.”
After sending Jokic the short text a few hours earlier that he’d be representing the Nuggets in the upcoming All-Star game, Hernangomez sat through the entirety of Denver’s win without taking off his warmup.
He was replaced by second-year forward Jarred Vanderbilt in the Nuggets’ rotation Thursday, a move that wasn’t too surprising considering Hernangomez is shooting a career-worst 24.1% from three-point range and has converted on only two of his last 26 triples. Hernangomez could be on his way out of Denver too with the trade deadline six days away and the 24-year-old set for restricted free agency this summer.
But his support for his team and Jokic has never wavered. Hernangomez and Jokic are close and throughout Jokic’s quiet offensive showings earlier this year, Hernangomez never stopped sending positive vibes his teammate’s direction.
“It’s been an amazing journey watching him,” Hernangomez told DNVR two days after Jokic’s game-winner in January lifted the Nuggets past the Mavericks. “I see him working hard every single day. I tell him how he can handle the team, that he can be the best player and how he can win a championship here. It’s about passion, about love on this team. About how can we get better after our first playoff appearance. It’s really amazing to be along his side.”
Hernangomez was on his feet on the Nuggets’ sideline all game Thursday.
He cheered on Torrey Craig, who’s masterful defensive outing held Donovan Mitchell to a four points on 1 of 12 shooting. Craig also chipped in 13 points on 6 of 10 shooting to go with 10 rebounds (four offensive), one steal and two blocks, both of which came on Mitchell at the rim.
He cheered on Barton, who continued his string of Ironman-like performances with the Nuggets down key rotation players and logged 36 minutes and recorded 18 points and five rebounds. He cheered on Jerami Grant, who’s 15 points and five rebounds in 34 minutes paired with Jokic’s night gave the Nuggets some much-needed frontcourt stability. He cheered on Michael Porter Jr., who chipped in 12 points and 12 rebounds, Monte Morris and rookie P.J. Dozier.
And he cheered on Jokic, who toppled Gobert Thursday and officially took the pole position — in case there were still any doubters — for the First Team All-NBA center spot, just as Hernangomez envisioned he would when assessing Jokic’s turnaround earlier this month.
“He was the best big man in the league,” Hernangomez said. “And now he’s the best big man in the league again.”
