"You can’t stop him": Nikola Jokic's updates his MVP resume in win over Jazz

Two nights ago in San Antonio, a chair placed near the Nuggets’ bench bore the brunt of Nikola Jokic’s frustration during a timeout as Denver was letting what could have been its fifth win on a five-game road trip slip away. Jokic was fed up. He was flat out pissed off. He was irked that the Nuggets were letting an inferior opponent like the Spurs outclass them, especially when Denver had been playing so well as of late.

Jokic’s right leg front-kick, which sent the helpless chair rocketing backward, was an early sign that the All-NBA big man wasn’t going to let what transpired Friday against the Spurs happen in back-to-back games. It didn’t matter that the Jazz were next up on the Nuggets’ schedule and had won 11 in a row entering Sunday’s matinee matchup. Or that Utah was getting both Donovan Mitchell and Derrick Favors back in the lineup.

Jokic didn’t care. The seven-footer updated his MVP resume Sunday by turning in arguably the best individual performance of the NBA season thus far. Jokic finished with 47 points, which tied his career-high, on 17-26 shooting from the field and a perfect 4-4 from three-point range, 12 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block. He carried the Nuggets to a 128-117 win over the Jazz.

From the game’s opening tip, Jokic was dominant. He tallied 22 points on 9-11 shooting in 11 first-quarter minutes as Denver raced out to a 43-29 lead. As the Jazz continued to guard Jokic 1-on-1 as teams have done often over the last couple of weeks, Jokic continued to pummel Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors and whatever defenders Utah threw his way. When the Jazz sent multiple bodies at Jokic, he found an open teammate. Many times that teammate was dotting the three-point line. Four of Jokic’s five assists Sunday ended in three-pointers.

“Really, there’s nothing you can do. That’s no disrespect to the defense of the other team or any player, there’s just nothing they can really do with him,” Will Barton said postgame. “The guy really has no flaws on offense. He has no weaknesses. He can shoot three, he has post moves, finishes around the rim, has touch shots, floaters, can bring the ball up, mid-range game, face up. To be honest with you, it’s really up to him every night. You can’t stop him.”

Barton hinted at the problem that NBA defenses are running up against when facing Denver. Guard Jokic 1-on-1 and he’ll score at will. Jokic said postgame he’s noticing that teams aren’t doubling him as much and that the defender that typically digs down to apply more pressure on him in the post or slides into the lane to provide help hasn’t been there as often this season.

If teams do send two defenders at Jokic, he’ll simply make the right pass. When the Nuggets are hitting their threes like they were Sunday — Denver shot an absurd 18-28 from distance — there’s no stopping or even containing a Jokic-led offensive attack.

“He’s just a special player,” JaMychal Green said.

Jokic had a chance for 50 points against the Jazz and a new career-high, but getting the win was his only priority. He notched his 46th and 47th points of the night on a layup after twirling around Jazz reserve forward Jarrell Brantley with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter. On Denver’s next trip down the floor, Michael Malone burned a timeout to get Jokic, Jamal Murray and the Nuggets’ starters out of the game.

Murray walked towards Malone after the timeout was called and playfully chucked the ball at Denver’s coach. Malone said postgame that he didn’t know Jokic was on the cusp of a new career-high and just wanted to get his regulars some well-deserved rest with a back-to-back against the Pistons on tap for Monday. Murray wanted Malone to let Jokic try for 50, even if it didn’t make much of a difference to his running mate whether or not he set a new career mark.

Jokic said he didn’t know he was sitting on 47 points until Murray alerted him that he was late in the fourth quarter. But it turns out the 50-point mark wasn’t what Jokic was after Sunday. He was chasing another milestone.

“It’s just a game. I think the main thing is just win the game. I’m going to score however much I need to just to win the game,” Jokic said. “I’m glad that I again beat Mike Miller’s record. I think he’s 45 (points) or something. I’m happy that I beat his record.”

Miller was Jokic’s teammate during his first two seasons in Denver from 2015-17. Miller also created the nickname “Joker” simply because he wasn’t able to pronounce Jokic’s last name. The two enjoyed a special rookie-veteran kinship back then and the presence Miller had on those young Nuggets teams made a significant impact on Jokic.

The Nuggets are still a fairly young team, but Jokic, who’s just 25-years-old, has grown up a lot this season and continues to take on more of a leadership role. After Denver arrived back in town late Friday night, Nuggets players were off from practice Saturday but had to be at Ball Arena at around 11 p.m. for mandatory COVID tests. Around 15 hours later, Jokic found himself in an animated third-quarter chat with defensive coordinator and Associate Head Coach Wes Unseld Jr. as the Nuggets walked back to their bench during a timeout. Utah had just cut Denver’s 25-point halftime lead to 14.

Like Miller often did to Jokic five seasons ago, Jokic took Green aside over the first half of the late-third quarter timeout for some 1-on-1 instruction. Following the timeout, Green scored nine points over the remainder of regulation as the Nuggets put the Jazz away for good.

With the win, the Nuggets improved to 12-8 and now sit fourth in the Western Conference. Denver has only two more losses than the Lakers and three more than the two other teams ahead of the Nuggets in the standings: the Jazz and Clippers.

Jokic also picked up his 20th-straight double-double to open the season, the second-most consecutive double-doubles to start a season in NBA history behind Bill Walton who had 34 in 1976-77.

No chairs were harmed in the process.

“This year he’s even more commanding, more vocal,” Barton said of Jokic. “And that’s what we need from him. He’s our best player and we get a lot of confidence from him. He knows the game so well. When he’s engaged and he’s talking, we’re just a better team. We’re just a better team, he’s a totally different player, and we need that from him.

“But he’s definitely maturing. And I think a lot of people forget he’s still young. He’s still young. So he’s growing in that aspect, but you see it this year more than ever.”