"We're starting to get a feel for each other": Jokic and Millsap discover chemistry in Nuggets' win

The Denver Nuggets were in desperate need of a bucket with a little less than five minutes remaining in Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Denver, which had already blown a game to a lottery-bound team earlier in the week, trailed the Lakers by a point. It couldn’t afford to fall to sub-.500 team twice in four days in the unforgiving Western Conference.

Nikola Jokic had an opportunity to chuck up a three early in the shot clock, but he passed it up in search of a better shot. After enough movement, Denver got the look it was hunting for. Jamal Murray hit Jokic on the roll. Two Lakers converged on Jokic. He immediately whipped the ball to his front court partner Paul Millsap, who absorbed a foul and converted.

The old-fashioned three-point play gave the Nuggets the lead for good. They closed the game on a 16-6 run and defeated the Lakers 125-116.

“Finally got an easy bucket,” Millsap said. “He read the double team well. I found myself under the bucket. He made a good pass. That was a big play for us.”

Friday marked Millsap’s sixth game back from a wrist injury that sidelined him for more than three months. It was by far his best outing since he returned. He needed 12 shots to score 21 points. He also grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots, two of which featured him denying Lakers big man Julius Randle at the rim.

“We’re both from the South. Southern boys,” Millsap said. “He eats more cornbread than me obviously. It was a good battle.”

In Millsap’s first four games back, he and Jokic often looked unsure next to one another. That wasn’t the case against the Lakers. They played their best game of the season together, masking each other’s weaknesses and highlighting strengths.

“We’re starting to get a feel for each other,” Millsap said. “He’s just got to continue to do him. Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna fit in. We run through him. He’s the engine that goes. When we’re feeding off him and playing off him, that’s when we’re at our best.”

Millsap has held steady on that message — that he just wants to fit in next to Jokic — since returning to game action Feb. 27. It finally appears to be translating into results. Jokic followed up a 36-point game versus Cleveland with 21 points (8-14 FG), six rebounds and six assists against L.A. He’s responded with two strong outings after getting benched during the fourth quarter of a disappointing loss to Dallas on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, hours before Denver’s narrow loss to Cleveland, Millsap pulled Jokic aside to remind him that he’s the focal point of the offense.

“He told me, ‘Just be you. I’m going to fit.’” Jokic recalled. “That says a lot of things about that guy. The guy who’s an All-Star. He doesn’t want any attention. He just wants to fit in with the team. He knows that if he fits with the team, we’re going to find him.”

Jokic and Millsap grew up on different continents, but if there’s a common thread that unites them it’s that neither seeks the spotlight. Both are talented big men who’d rather win basketball games than go for 30. Neither minds deferring if it’s in the best interest of the team. Perhaps that’s contributed to some initial awkwardness in terms of fit.

Friday represented progress, though. Jokic and Millsap both put up big numbers. Most importantly, Denver got a win.

The Nuggets, who improved to 36-30, are still fighting an uphill battle to make the playoffs for the first time since 2013. But if the chemistry between its power forward and center continues to improve, it’s not hard to envision Denver getting there.

“I think the biggest thing is Nikola is no longer worrying about Paul Millsap. Nikola is playing, and that’s what he has to do,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “No matter who else is on the floor, Nikola has to play his game and understand that he is our guy, he is our go-to guy, and we are going to play through him. Paul is a hell of a player, and as he gets his rhythm back now we become even more dangerous with those two guys playing at a high level. I think their rhythm tonight was great, and they played off each other at a very high level.”