Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic fouled out in the third quarter for the first time in his career during Wednesday’s Game 2 in Oklahoma City. Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon is frustrated by the way Jokic is being officiated, writes Troy Renck of The Denver Post.
“They are calling the second foul almost all of the time. They are fouling Joker first,” Gordon said. “You know Jok is reactionary and they do get the second guy a lot of the times. But they are fouling him throughout the game — point blank. Period. And it’s a thing you can’t call every foul because you would be calling a foul every single play. But they are fouling him. They are a handsy team.”
As Renck notes, no one on the Nuggets blamed the officials for Wednesday’s lopsided defeat. But Jokic has now accumulated 11 fouls in two games against a physical Thunder team, and that will be an important trend to monitor for the remainder of the second-round series.
“You can (help him), but if they are going to let them push him and shove him, like two hands on him, root him out, (use) the knee, elbows, all types of stuff that they are doing to him that is not necessarily legal, then, there’s not much you can do,” Gordon said. “Jok has gotta play through it. If they are not going to call it, they are not calling it. We can help hit them. But they are fouling the guy.”
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- Denver was thoroughly dismantled on Wednesday and trailed by 31 points at halftime. After the game, interim head coach David Adelman explained why he played the starters in the third quarter with the contest seemingly out of reach. “I felt like we needed to find a rhythm, a physicality,” Adelman said, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “I think that (Oklahoma City) thought that we were trying to junk up the game, which we weren’t. We were just trying to play much harder than we did in the first half. Obviously, when (Jokic) fouled out, (we) got them all out with about a minute left (in the third quarter). They got to sit the whole (fourth) quarter. They get to sit tomorrow. All day Friday. And get ready for Friday night. So no, I was not just gonna sit the guys at halftime. That’s not what we’re doing here.”
- In order for the Nuggets to rebound from Wednesday’s humiliating defeat and take a 2-1 lead in Friday’s Game 3, they will have to match the Thunder’s physicality, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic. “We got punked,” Adelman said. “And we allowed ourselves to get punked. We didn’t play well enough at any point, and we have to realize that this is a team that can separate from other teams. There’s a reason this team has a historic plus/minus. We need a better start than that. We need to be better than that. We can say the series is tied 1-1, but we aren’t going to flush that. That’s not what this game was. We’ll have to look at what they did and how we responded, and I would expect a much better effort than that on Friday night.” Renck of The Denver Post also believes the Nuggets need to play more forcefully against the top-seeded Thunder.
- Russell Westbrook‘s game is polarizing, but the Nuggets “would be a mess” without him in these playoffs, Renck contends. Westbrook, who assisted Gordon’s game-winning three in the series opener, is averaging 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steal on .451/.375/.719 shooting through eight postseason games (25.6 minutes per contest).
The #1 reason why the Nuggets won’t win it this year: Russell Westbrook. That man is a curse to any team. He will never win a chip in this league because he stole an MVP from Steph. Same with Harden.
Harden will never win a chip, but Westbrook certainly has a chance to if he remains a productive bench guy for a few more years. Nuggets truly would be worse without his energy.
And really, that’s your reason? He will never win a title because you think he didn’t deserve MVP? What kind of weird, contrived karma punishment is that?
He doesn’t understand the media voted for Westbrook, not Westbrook himself lmao, but this is the same dude who believes that Moses Moody is an all star player if he gets 30-35 MPG. Lmao
Nah for real, I shouldn’t have bothered even posting but sometimes Daveys takes are just too baffling. Would love his updated thoughts on how Kuminga/Moody > podz lmao
Nuggets absolutely are losing games because of his idiotic, choker “energy”.
If they DNP him from here on out, they will win the title. Russ is a clown and always has been and always will be. Get ready for Russ passing up an open Joker downlow in crunch time so Russ can throw the ball into the 8th row of the stands somehow and miss the backboard or some insane crap only Russ seems to do. Russ absolutely was never even a 5th as valuable as Curry was that season he got gifted the MVP he didn’t deserve at all.
Also, this karma might extend to SGA if he wins MVP over Joker, when Chet is just as good and just as valuable as SGA is. The voters said they wouldn’t vote if a team had 2 dominating guys like KD and Steph, well what are Chet and SGA if not that?
If OKC loses one of Chet or SGA on opening night, they are still winning 65 games. If Joker is out for the year on opening night, DEN are missing the playoffs and likely will be a bottom 4 team. Joker is 100x more valuable to his team than both.
first line is missing a key word “out”
Nah, that’s just how good Jokic is, he’s actually never committed a foul until last night . Lol
MPJ would even suck in the bundesliga. He was soft before his shoulder injury. Now it’s just so demoralizing to watch him as a Nuggets fan. He should not be playing more than 20 minutes if he’s healthy. As he is now, I’d not play him at all.
He never cuts on time and when he does, it looks like he’s doing us a favor.
He does not pass the ball, and when he does, the passes are so weak, you understand why.
His help defense is nonexistent, nor is his rebounding.
A player who places all of his eggs in the shooting basket adds that much more pressure to his shot, as they know that if they don’t make this shot, there’s no reason for them to be on the floor, and that’s why he’s shooting such a bad percentage and it’s not gonna fix itself.
MPJ is the reason Russ has to try to do so much. A vet minimum guy covering for a guy getting paid for unrealised potential. Playing with a generational passer who’s consistently getting doubled and a power forward who does ALL of the dirty work without complaint, MPJ will never play in an environment better set up for him to flourish, but he still sucks.