What pressure? Nikola Jokic continues to check every box in his playoff debut, but one aspect of his play shined above all else in Round 1

The Nikola Jokic story goes a little something like this.

A self-described “fat point guard” grows up Sombor, Serbia, a quaint little town located in the northwest corner of the country tucked up against the borders of neighboring Hungary and Croatia. There he watches his two older brothers play the game of basketball while he dabbles in the sport but remains drawn to the horse stables.

But Jokic begins to develop a love for the game at 15 years old from watching YouTube highlight reels of some of the greats, drawing inspiration from Magic’s passing and Jordan’s killer instinct. As he grows into his 6-foot-10 frame, he begins to study tape of the top big men from the prior generation. He’s drawn to the powerful nature of Shaq’s post game and Duncan’s exquisite footwork.

Then, Jokic begins to climb the European basketball ranks and top teams across the continent begin to take notice. He pops onto the NBA radar as a unique prospect with top Serbian club Mega Leks, and the Nuggets make him the 41st overall pick of the 2014 draft. Two years later, he arrives in Denver.

“I saw him at Summer League,” Will Barton recalled. “I thought he was pretty decent. Then we got to training camp. I’m like, ‘This guy can play a little bit.’ We had some injuries with our bigs and I don’t think he expected to play that much, but with the injuries, we had to throw him out there.

“He was just playing well. When you see something for the first time, you’re like, ‘Eh, maybe it’s luck, maybe it’s something else.’ But the more he played, the more you could see, ‘this guy’s pretty good. Like, oh shit. OK, he’s an NBA player.’ His second year, ‘OK, he’s a starter.’ The next year, he’s the best player on our team. Then this year, an All-Star.”

Saturday night, inside a jam-packed Pepsi Center, Jokic wrote the next chapter to his story, one that continues to evolve and develop in a way that few could have ever envisioned. Jokic played 43 minutes and finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, his second triple-double of the playoffs as the Nuggets topped the Spurs 90-86 in Game 7. In the series, he nearly averaged a triple-double: 23.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 9.1 assists.

But it wasn’t his scoring, which there was plenty of, or his exemplary playmaking or even his staunch defensive effort on LaMarcus Aldridge throughout a physical seven games that was the most impressive aspect of his performance throughout the series that ultimately propelled Denver to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

It was his poise, and how when the lights got bright and the stage went international, Jokic was himself, both on and off the court and remained the same player who led the Nuggets to 54 wins by playing his brand of basketball.

“It speaks to Nikola’s greatness,” Michael Malone said of his superstar’s ability to stay calm throughout a pressure-packed series. “I think it speaks to him never being afraid of the moment, or never being overwhelmed. Like he always says, ‘It’s just basketball.’ Whether it’s regular season Game 54 or it’s Game 7, at the end of the day, it’s just basketball and that’s how he approaches it.”

Jokic’s poised presence trickled down to the Nuggets’ youthful locker room throughout the series. Coming into the playoffs you couldn’t read one article about Denver’s postseason hopes or get through one segment of local sports radio without hearing about the Nuggets’ lack of playoff experience. It was a valid point to make. Outside of Paul Millsap, Isaiah Thomas, Mason Plumlee and Will Barton, Denver didn’t have a ton of playoff reps inside its locker room. Typically, you need postseason experience to make a playoff run or even win a series. You have to go through those battles before ultimately winning the war. The Nuggets didn’t pay much attention to that narrative, however. Maybe it was because their All-Star big man didn’t let them.

“We didn’t even think about that,” said Torrey Craig, who was one of seven Nuggets rotation players who made their playoff debuts this series.

Game 7 was another Jokic masterpiece. He recorded his second triple-double of the playoffs while holding Aldridge to just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Jamal Murray chipped in a team-high 23 points and scored what ended up being Denver’s final bucket of the night, a one-footed runner from the elbow that put the Nuggets up 90-86 with 36.8 seconds remaining.

Throughout the evening, Jokic once again came up big when Denver needed him most.

Early in the fourth quarter as the Spurs drew closer and closer, Jokic stripped Aldridge as the Spurs’ big man began to rise into another mid-range jumper, and the steal turned into a Monte Morris layup. When San Antonio cut the Nuggets’ lead to eight points later in the quarter following a few shaky offensive possessions from Denver, Jokic caught a pass from Barton in the paint and converted a floater from 5 feet out, calming the nerves of a boisterous sold-out crowd that suddenly had turned tense.

“Everybody is different. They don’t have Nikola’s same personality,” Michael Malone said. “But any time your best player has that kind of poise, leadership, that definitely will help the younger guys out. When things aren’t going our way and they can look to him, and they see calmness, under pressure and under duress, yeah, I think that’s a great thing to have. And that’s how leadership is shown in many different ways. And that’s why Nikola is a leader for our team.”

“We don’t play with pressure,” said Murray.

Some were surprised with the poise Jokic showed throughout the first round. Others weren’t. Nuggets brass has been quick to point out throughout the series that their big man has plenty of big-game experience in front of sold-out crowds despite never stepping foot in the playoffs before. Jokic was a crucial piece to Serbia’s silver-medal winning Olympic team in 2016, which faced off against the United States in the gold medal game that year, and prior to arriving in Denver in 2015, Jokic’s European club lost in the championship game of Serbia’s National Cup final to Crvena Zvezda. Back home, Jokic is always quick to say, the fans are way louder and nastier than anything he’s experienced over his first four seasons in the NBA.

“You expect (Jokic) to be poised,” Craig said. “You expect him to make big plays. You expect him to have big games in big-time moments like the playoffs.”

The roar from Pepsi Center’s crowd was deafening in Game 7, the loudest Denver’s home fans have been since it last hosted a playoff series in 2013. They watched and cheered as their superstar willed his team to victory once again. In his first series, Jokic finished with 162 points, 85 rebounds and 64 assists. No one has ever hit those marks in a seven-game first-round playoff series.

“I think (the) team expected me to do something, so I was just trying to go out there and play my best basketball possible,” Jokic said of his gaudy numbers in the series. “I mean, is it something I live for? No. It’s just really good stats.”

The next chapter of Jokic’s basketball fairytale begins Monday, in Game 1 of the Nuggets’ second-round series against the Trail Blazers. Where does it go from there?

“He’s a future Hall-of-Famer,” Malone said. “He’s an All-NBA player. He’s an MVP candidate.”

However long the Nuggets can extend their postseason run is now the question at hand. If their first-round series was any indication of what’s to come, Jokic could push Denver past Portland and into the Western Conference finals.

Those games will be played at an increased level of intensity. The stakes will be higher. The crowds will be louder. The pressure will be ramped up to notches that most Nuggets players have never experienced. Yet, you know that Jokic will continue to be himself.

“Where’s Sparky?” Jokic yelled while dressing in the Nuggets’ locker room after the Game 7 win, calling for Denver’s equipment manager as he’s done after what seems like every game, regular season or playoffs, for the last four years.

He won’t feel that pressure. The Nuggets won’t either.