Poetry in motion: Nikola Jokic's tear rumbles on with dominant performance against Hornets

Ten nuggets for each shot Nikola Jokic made in the second half of Saturday’s 123-110 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

1. If LeBron James is an SUV in transition then Nikola Jokic is a minivan. Shortly after halftime, Jokic intercepted a pass and cruised down the court like a Toyota Sienna on I-70. It was the second game in a row the vertically challenged center threw down a transition dunk.

“Poetry in motion,” Jokic said.

The flush accounted for two of the 23 points Jokic scored in the second half. He shook off a so-so start to finish with 39 points, 12 rebounds and six assists — an impressive line for a player whose coach felt like he left some points on the table.

“Tonight I thought he could have had 50 points,” Michael Malone said. “He missed a lot of chippies, a lot of bunnies around the basket.”

Jokic kept firing after missing 10 of the first 16 shots he attempted. That marked progress in Malone’s eyes; in the past, he’s sometimes had to beg his best player to shoot more.

“I love the fact that he took 29 shots tonight,” Malone said. “Go back a month, a month and a half ago, he took one shot in a game. An aggressive Nikola Jokic to score, to make plays, to rebound is a hell of a player. It sets the tone for everybody.”

Malone was referring to a Nov. 7 game against the Memphis Grizzlies, when Jokic’s only field-goal attempt came in the waning seconds of an 89-87 loss. Up to that point, Jokic was averaging 10.2 shots per game. In the 22 games since, Jokic is averaging 15.7 shots per game.

“He knows that if he misses two in a row, five in a row, we need him to stay aggressive,” Malone said. “When he’s doing that, that forces teams to account for that, and that’s when you get open behind him and he makes the right play time and time again. He’s not allowing the last play to affect his next play, which is a sign of maturity.”

2. A fun wrinkle the Nuggets are toying with: a 5-1 pick and roll with Jokic as the ball handler and Jamal Murray as the screener. They went to it twice in the third quarter. Both times, it bore fruit.

“It’s unique,” Jokic said. “Lately it’s kind of weird for big men to guard the ball in the pick and roll. It’s a little different way to get into our offense, get shots. You can see Jamal rolling even better than me sometimes.”

3. The reintegration effort took some time, but it sounds like it’s complete. Gary Harris and Paul Millsap came off the bench against Charlotte. Both played well. Harris scored 17, mixing in athletic drives to the rim with three deep balls, while Millsap contributed 18. Malone said afterward he expects both to start Monday against the Houston Rockets.

“Both of those guys I think showed that they’re ready to take their starting jobs back,” Malone said. “Me bringing them off the bench was just me trying to bring them back into a game rhythm.”

That means Murray, Harris, Millsap and Jokic will occupy four of the starting spots, which leaves small forward open. I’m curious to see who gets the nod between Torrey Craig and Juancho Hernangomez.

4. Millsap hauled in four offensive rebounds. Jokic corralled eight. The Nuggets grabbed 17 as a team. They’re grabbing nearly a third of all offensive rebounds available this season — the best mark in the league.

5. Kudos to Craig: He’s shooting the ball at a respectable rate from outside. Craig shot 35.7 percent from 3 in December. He hit 2 of 4 looks from distance Saturday.

Defenses were straight up ignoring Craig as a spot-up shooter earlier this season, which put a strain on Denver’s spacing. That’s no longer the case.

6. Sometimes it looks the Nuggets are playing tic tac toe out there. They handed out 30 assists compared to seven turnovers.

It was the 12th time this season the Nuggets finished with 30 or more assists. They are 10-2 in those games. Denver is averaging 27.2 assists per game this season, the second-highest mark in the league behind Golden State.

7. Don’t overlook the strides Murray’s made as a passer. He’s done an excellent job of finding Jokic in the pick and role lately.

Murray recorded seven assists Saturday; four of them went to Jokic. Denver’s 21-year-old point guard is averaging 5 assists this season — up significantly from the 3.4 he averaged last year. Murray does more than just score the ball.

8. Pepsi Center was the place to be Saturday. Comedian Pete Davidson and rapper Machine Gun Kelly were sitting courtside. Rocky was there along with a dozen of his closest mascot friends to celebrate his birthday. And it was a sellout — the 13th of the year.

“When I first came here, we had a small amount of people who came,” Jokic said. “Now it’s a full arena. That means we’re doing something big for us, for the city. That’s kind of cool.”

9. The Nuggets were dead last in home attendance in Jokic’s first two seasons. They jumped to 20th in 2017-18. Now they’re 14th. An average of 18,126 fans have piled into Pepsi Center to watch Denver’s best pro sports team play this season. The Nuggets, winners of 16 of their last 20, are on an incredible run right now. And to think we haven’t even got to see what they look like at full strength.

10. Stretching this win streak to six won’t be easy. On Monday, the Nuggets face the Houston Rockets, a team they’ve lost eight in a row to. James Harden is one some kind of tear right now. So is Jokic. Should be a great test.