Denver Nuggets: Player Grades from Philadelphia

Nikola Jokic – B

A stat line of 14, seven and four is not what we’ve gotten used to from Nikola.  Still, as much as any game this season, the Serbian big was taken out of the game early by favorable officiating for Joel Embiid.  We could go into the East Coast media bias or superstar calls (is Embiid a superstar?) but those have been debated plenty.

What seems to happen to Jokic, at 23, is that situations like Embiid can get into his head.  We saw a lot more (mostly justified) complaining to the referees than we’ve seen in a while.

Nikola seemed further frustrated by the defensive play of his team.  In particular, a play in the third where Embiid was backing Jokic in.  Torry Craig reached, to slap at the ball when Embiid turned and drew a foul.  It frustrated Jokic because he had kept Joel out of his comfort area and forced him to turn early.  A strategy that could have been effective, had Craig not reached.

It seems, sometimes, in games like this that The Joker is snake bit from the beginning and the harder he tries to work out of it, the deeper he digs in.

He shot just 28.6% from the field, a number not familiar to the usually sound Jokic.  He did, however, grab seven rebounds, had four assists a steal and a block.

Even though statistics don’t bear it out, this was a game in which Jokic put out a lot of effort.  He was vocal with his team.

It just never clicked for him.  Fortunately, it’s rare that Jokic strings bad stats games together and he should look forward to tonight’s matchup with Jonas Valancunas, the Raptors Lithuanian center.