NBA All-Star Gets Honest About Guarding Nikola Jokic
The Minnesota Timberwolves shocked the NBA world last night when they handed the Denver Nuggets their first loss of the season. Not only did they defeat the Nuggets, they absolutely dominated them.
Even though the Nuggets lost last night to the Wolves, Nikola Jokic still put up a great game. He did, however, have quite a handful of turnovers - five to be exact. Timberwolves guard Mike Conley has faced Jokic in the playoffs numerous times and opened up about what it's like to defend him.
"I've been a part of those [game] plans where you say let [Jokic] score, or let him be a facilitator and they both don't work," Conley said to Chris Hine. "It's really just compete and play hard. Try to make it a tough night on them. Everybody who was out there did a great job."
When you look at what Jokic did last night, he scored, but he couldn't facilitate. Jokic put up 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists, but he had 5 turnovers. On this rare occasion, Jokic had more turnovers than assists. That's where the rest of the Denver Nuggets need to come in hand and alleviate that pressure from Jokic. Michael Porter Jr. was 2/11 from the field, Jamal Murray was 5/16 from the field, and Aaron Gordon only had 3 shots up. It was a game where the entire Nuggets' offense became disjointed.
The Nuggets won't be able to get their revenge against the Timberwolves until next year, March 24, 2024, to be precise. One thing is for sure though, they'll be remembering who handed them their first loss of the season.
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