I think it’s safe to say the Nuggets have officially hit their stride. They’ve won 10 of their last 11 when Nikola Jokic plays and the time without him has improved the second unit significantly. Adding Aaron Gordon back to the fold as a Swiss Army Knife off the bench and the improved play of Jamal Murray have also been major factors in this recent resurgence.
Denver is up to 26-16 on the season, good for fourth place in the Western Conference. They’re just a game back of the third-place Grizzlies and only two and a half games back of the second-place Rockets. After what felt like a near-disastrous start to the season, things have leveled off and a top 2 seed in the West is in sight.
They’ve also opened up a little separation on the other side of things. The Nuggets now have a three-game lead on the 6th-seeded Lakers and Mavericks for the final top-6 spot to avoid the play-in tournament. There’s a lot of season left, but things are falling in place for the Nuggets and they’re as healthy as they’ve been.
As it stands, they can contend with anyone in the West not named the Thunder. And if they keep playing well and add another player or two in the coming months, there’s no reason to think this team won’t be on the short list of contenders come playoff time.
But among all of this resurgence, the one big steadying factor has, of course, been the three-time MVP of the league, Nikola Jokic. The Joker is having the best season of his career through all kinds of turmoil and lineup changes. It doesn’t matter who’s out there or who the opponent is, Jokic is going to ball out.
Jokic has more triple-doubles through 3 quarters than any other team has total
Jokic was his usual brilliant self on Sunday afternoon, leading the Nuggets to a whopping 113-100 victory in Orlando. The Joker paced his team with 20 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks.
But what makes the line even more impressive is that it took Jokic just three-quarters to reach these marks. This was the 12th time this season that Jokic has recorded a triple-double prior to the 4th quarter beginning. To put things in perspective, no other NBA team has even produced as many as 12 triple-doubles this entire season.
— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) January 20, 2025
This is yet another stat that sounds almost made up; it’s so ridiculous how far ahead of the field Jokic is. He’s lapping the league with his stats and he’s not even using entire games to do it. The numbers are just numbing at this point because of Jokic’s greatness. We are lucky to get to witness this on a nightly basis and we need to constantly remember not to take any of this for granted.