Nikola Jokic had a decent game while being out of sync with his teammates. His line for the night was 29 points on 9-for-14 shooting (with 8 trips to the line even), 9 rebounds and 5 assists… but also 8 turnovers. Many of the turnovers were simple unfamiliarity – botched catches, players stopping halfway through a cut while the ball sails to where they were going to be, things of that nature. As I Ryan and I said on Twitter:
Those things will get ironed out. It’s nearly impossible to win a game when you commit 24 turnovers as a team, but few of Jokic’s miscues were of the careless variety (unlike some from Emmanuel Mudiay and Jamal Murray). The Nuggets definitely need to cut down on the stupid turnovers, but they also have to get used to playing basketball with a 6’10 point-center again (or for the first time in Paul Millsap’s case). At least as fans we can take comfort that Jokic hasn’t forgotten how to score.
Let’s just not talk about that Scotty Brooks flop for a Jokic technical that helped seal the game. Jokic made shots and had dimes today, and despite the loss that’s still a good takeaway. Check ‘em out!
