There were basketball fans, and certainly Nuggets fans, who gave Denver a shot to beat the Thunder simply out of respect for Nikola Jokic. We know Jokic is the best player in the world, and there’s almost always a chance he can single-handedly drag his team to victory. We saw it in Game 1 when Jokic had 42 points and 22 rebounds while dragging the Nuggets to a victory in Oklahoma City.
But there were not many fans who thought the Nuggets could compete with the Thunder without Jokic rising to his absolute best. When analyzing and previewing this series, it almost went without saying that all of the analysis was relying on Jokic being the best player on the floor.
Yet, Jokic was far from his best on Friday night, and the Nuggets were still able to pull out a 113-104 overtime win to take a 2-1 lead in their series with the Thunder. The Joker finished with 20 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 assists, but he struggled to get it going all night.
He shot just 8/25 from the field, including 0/10 on three-pointers, and most shocking of all, he turned the ball over 8 times. It was about as uncharacteristic of a Jokc game as you’ll ever see, and you’d assume that on the extremely rare occasion he gives you a dud, the Nuggets get blown out and move onto the next game.
Nuggets’ supporting cast outplays OKC’s
However, on this night, in one of the biggest games of the season, it was the much-maligned supporting cast of the Nuggets that stepped up and carried Jokic along for this massive victory. The team defense was maybe the best it has been all year, really bothering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, holding the MVP favorite to just 18 points while holding the Thunder to just 104 points in 53 minutes.
Christian Braun, Russell Westbrook, and Peyton Watson really rose to the occasion on that end, doing everything to contain SGA without fouling, playing a lot of zone defense, and flying around to contest shooters and force OKC into mistakes.
On offense, it was the other three members of the Nuggets’ “Core 4” outside of Jokic that came up big. Aaron Gordon continues to play like a star and had 22 points on 7/11 shooting, which included another clutch three he made in the final seconds to tie the game and force overtime.
Denver also got the game they needed from Jamal Murray, who had 27 points, just his second time this playoffs scoring over 23 points. They needed a big Murray scoring night, and they got it as he led the team in points and scored big hoops down the stretch as they grinded this game out.
And perhaps the most critical performance was that of Michael Porter Jr. MPJ has faced nothing but criticism after the first two games of this series. It looked like that shoulder injury had caught up with him, and he was almost unplayable against OKC.
But he dug deep on Friday night and had an amazing showing with 21 points and 8 rebounds on 7/10 shooting and 5/6 on threes, most of which were tightly contested. He couldn’t have picked a better time to pull through with this incredible shooting performance that was so desperately needed. There’s no way the Nuggets win this game without the play of Porter Jr.
If Nuggets' role players keep this up, they’ll be tough to beat
This is the vision the Nuggets have had all year for their supporting cast, and the fact that they finally showed it with everything on the line in the playoffs against the best team in the league is an excellent sign.
Surely, Jokic won’t play this poorly again, but if the rest of the players can keep this up and continue to outduel the complementary players on the Thunder, the sky is the limit for Denver. They now have a 2-1 lead in this series with Game 4 in Ball Arena on Sunday.
The job is far from done, and it’s not going to be easy to finish off this great Thunder team, but the Nuggets sent a message on Friday night: this team is locked in and hungry, and they think they can beat anyone in the NBA. Watching them play right now, it’s hard to argue, and the Thunder and the rest of the league should be very worried.