What to do with a player like The Joker?
It’s been the riddle tormenting NBA head coaches all season – and really for several seasons – as Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic began establishing himself as one of the best and most unusual players in the world.
The reigning league MVP and one of the favourites to win it again this year can fill a scouting report by himself in that he’s simultaneously one of the league’s best passers, scorers, shooters and rebounders.
He’s almost single-handedly kept the injury-riddled Nuggets relevant in the Western Conference as they try to stay in the mix while hoping Canadian star Jamal Murray can recover from his ACL injury and high-scoring forward Michael Porter Jr. can bounce back after back surgery.
“When you start talking about these guys in the league, you got to cover so many things, right?” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before his club took the floor against the Nuggets. “They’re handling in picking rolls; they’re setting in picking rolls, and they’re deadly when they set and get the ball back.
“There’s a ton of post-ups and then there’s all this other kind of quirky stuff, like he gets a defensive rebound and he’ll throw up 90 feet in the air to somebody and land it. …. he just does everything, so you’ve got to go through a pretty healthy game plan and have a lot of things on the menu to pick from and see how it goes.”
Of course, opposing coaches have likely been wondering the same thing about Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, who has been playing at all-star level since early December and has been at an MVP level during the Raptors 17-6 run since Dec. 31st.
It made for quite a duel and made for an entertaining show in front of what should be the last game at a near-empty Scotiabank Arena, with fans expected to be back in some capacity by the time the Raptors next play at home on March 1st. The Raptors went 9-3 without the benefit of a home crowd.
In the end, the decisive play was made by Jokic, though it came on defence as he blocked OG Anunoby at the rim after the Raptors forward fielded a Fred VanVleet triple just before the buzzer. VanVleet had pulled Toronto within one with a three on the previous possession and was looking to make Jokic pay for missing both free throws with 12.2 seconds left.
The 110-109 loss snapped Toronto’s league-best eight-game winning streak and dropped their record to 31-24 while Denver improved to 31-25.
Both Siakam and Jokic performed as advertised with Siakam perhaps coming out ahead as he dropped a game-high 35 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing five assists in 42 minutes. Jokic finished with 28 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and two blocks, including his game saver. He scored seven points in the final 3:23 as well.
VanVleet scored 25 points and had five assists after being listed questionable until game time with groin soreness that kept him out of the Raptors win over Houston on Thursday. Scottie Barnes had 17 points and five rebounds.
The Raptors now play five games on the road beginning Monday night in New Orleans with their trip divided by the NBA All-Star break.
Raptors newcomer Thaddeus Young – acquired at the trade deadline Thursday – was available but didn’t see the floor with his new team as Nurse opted to stick with what’s been working during Toronto’s winning streak. But Young sounds like he sees the big picture in his 14th NBA season after establishing himself as a versatile power forward who can defend multiple positions, shoot and score well enough to keep defences honest and pass the ball well enough to keep an offence moving.
“I want to be a great teammate,” said Young. “And I think I’ve done that over the course of my career. The one thing about me, anybody who’s played with me or anybody on any teams I’ve played with, you know, they’re gonna say the value that I bring — obviously I can play basketball — but I bring a significant amount of value from the leadership side and being able to communicate with my guys and uplift them even when they are in [a]downtime.”
The Raptors got the full Jokic treatment in the first quarter. On his first touch in the post on the left block Siakam rushed over to help OG Anunoby and Jokic flicked a simple pass to a cutting Aaron Gordon for a dunk. A moment later the faster-than-he-looks 7-footer grabbed a defensive rebound, led the break, beat Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes at half-court with a behind-the-back dribble, took it all the way to the rim and scored on a lefty runner.
Just after that, he curled off a screen at the elbow like a giant shooting guard, got fouled and scored on a fadeaway baseline jumper. Then he got a couple of buckets tipping his own misses to himself, towering over the Raptors’ under-sized collection of power forwards and centres.
By the time he checked out with just under two minutes left in the first quarter, he had 18 points and four rebounds as Denver jumped out to a 31-25 lead.
The Nuggets’ problem is that Jokic can’t play every minute and they simply haven’t been very good without their MVP on the court. The Raptors took advantage, and it was Siakam – whose ability to handle the ball, pass, score and rebound gives Toronto their own version of do-everything-big. The Raptors star scored 13 of his 19 first-half points in the second quarter and his fingerprints were all over a 20-6 Toronto run that started that put the Raptors up eight before Denver – with Jokic back on the floor – trimmed Toronto’s lead to 57-56 at the half.
Siakam kept rolling from there. He added nine more in the third quarter but had VanVleet join him in the fight with a pair of deep threes late in the quarter that helped give Toronto an 86-83 lead into the fourth, their cause aided by managing to keep Jokic off the board in the period, holding him scoreless on just two field-goal attempts.
Three-point Grange:
• An interesting wrinkle to Young’s presence with the Raptors is his relationship with fifth-year Raptors forward OG Anunoby, who played on the youth basketball team the NBA veteran sponsored.
“This is the part that makes me feel old,” Young said. “… I think we got OG when he was 16 years old and the first time I saw him I was like ‘This kid is going to be a pro.’ Just because of his physical attributes and the things he can do. OG is a great kid. He is always listening. Sometimes he over-analyzes a little bit, but he’s a great kid. Continues work, continues to get better and he’s always coming back in and talking to some of the other kids we have within the program. We built a bond and a brotherhood throughout the course of his career and throughout the course of my career so I am very happy to see he has continued to excel and I am very happy to be able to play with him because we already have that connection.”
But that doesn’t mean Anunoby is any more exuberant with his mentor as he is elsewhere.
“He was my first text,” Young said. “He was the first text but I don’t think he was super excited. I probably only seen OG smile three times since we’ve known each other.
Was the text more than two words?
“No, now that you mention it,” said Young. “I’m going to talk to him about it.”
• Before the game, I got a chance to briefly chat with Murray, the sixth-year veteran from Kitchener, ON. He’s been out all season after tearing his ACL last April, an injury that quite possibly cost the Nuggets a chance to win an NBA title [they lost in the second round to Phoenix].
He told me he’s been progressing well in his rehabilitation. He can dunk and can play 1-on-1 but hasn’t advanced past that point yet. He did a 30-minute shooting workout before the game and certainly hasn’t lost his touch. Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly told a Denver radio station that Murray and Porter Jr. – the high-scoring forward who has been sidelined for most of the year after back surgery – are getting closer to returning: “It’s up to them. We’re going to clear them at some point in the not-too-distant future and then they have to determine when and if they’re ready.”
• Nick Nurse has coached in the NBA All-Star game, he’s been an assistant coach for an NBA All-Star game. He’s been at All-Star weekend as a starry-eyed G-League coach. He does not, one might think need to spend a February weekend in Cleveland if he doesn’t have to – no offence to Cleveland, which is not a bad place at all, if my opinion counts. But February by Lake Erie perhaps doesn’t show the city in it’s best light. Regardless, Nurse says he’ll make the trip for the All-Star game on Feb. 20th as a show of appreciation for first-time All-Star Fred VanVleet as well as rookie Scottie Barnes and second-year big man Precious Achiuwa who are part of the Rising Stars event on Feb. 18th.
“I’m really proud of those guys, all of them, for making it and representing us,” said Nurse. “I just felt like I wanted to be there and support them. That’s it, really. I just think it’s a special moment for them, and I wanna be there to see it.”
