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The Golden State Warriors pummeled the Denver Nuggets to kickstart their first-round opener on April 16 123-107.
Defending MVP Nikola Jokic led his team with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. However, a career 54.2% field goal shooter, he took 25 shots to score those 25 points. With Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. out, Jokic needs to be perfect for his team to stay competitive and win games, especially against a team like the Warriors.
“I think I missed a couple easy ones, but I think they were defending me really well,” Jokic tells the media after Game 1. “I need to be better. I just need to at least make the lay-ups and easy shots.”
The Joker did uncharacteristically miss a lot of shots around the rim. He usually feasts off opponents by using his footwork to get anywhere he wants around the basket. The star did give props to how Draymond Green, Kevon Looney, and Nemanja Bjelica defended him throughout the game.
“Really good,” Jokic says on how he was guarded. “They had Draymond, who’s a –how many times player defensive [player of the year] –two, three times? So, he was in these situations. They have Looney, they have Bjelica. They have the tools.”
Draymond Green Thinks Jokic’s Inefficiency Is a Fluke
When stars have bad games in the playoffs, they usually make adjustments and come back and have success.
Green is no stranger to the playoffs, and as an elite defender he understands that superstars bounce back quickly in the ensuing game.
“I feel like he’s going to try to come out and give me 40 [points], 15 [rebounds], and 15 [assists] next game,” Green predicts of Jokic’s Game 2 performance. “He’s pissed off and he’s coming out with a vengeance tomorrow.”
As basketball fans know, Jokic is not simply a scorer. He is the defending MVP for a reason. Green maybe one of the top defenders in the league, but good offense always beats good defense. Even Green knows his team is going to throw multiple guys to guard Jokic, just to try to slow him down.
“He’s an incredible player and a very, very, very tough guard,” Green says of Jokic. “When I’m guarding him, I’m also playing chess. It’s not just ‘Bang, bang, I beat him to the spot.’ It’s a lot of different games within the game that you have to try to play.”
Green describes how there are levels to how to defend the Joker, because he simply has so many tricks up his sleeve in terms of impacting the game offensively.
Playoff Intensity Is Expected to Pick Up the Rest of Series
Unlike other playoff games, the NBA is structured in a best of seven game series. Losing one game is not going to cost a team, because one team needs to win four times to advance.
Green makes a solid point, when he says he’s out there playing chess against Jokic. The playoffs are not a sprint, but more like a marathon, where teams have to outlast opponents moreso with tactics than talent alone.
“Just stay together,” Nuggets guard Monte Morris describes after Game 1. “It’s one game. Seven game series, first of four, no need to panic. We’ve been down before, we’ve been up before. Still a lot of basketball to be played.”
Green expects games to get more competitive and tougher as we get deeper into the series.
“As [the] series goes on, you have to do that anyway,” Green says after practice on April 17. “Games get tougher. First game, everyone’s kinda feeling their way through…But the intensity, it rises. Everybody gotta ramp it up, not just against Joker, but everyone.”
These games are all about adjustments. After the first team delivers the first punch, the opponent is expected to counter and throw one of their own punches back to stay competitive. This is what makes playoff basketball so exhilarating, so it would not be surprising if Game 2 was more competitive.
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