Jokić’s huge OT night

Nikola Jokić dragged Denver out of a game that looked finished, and he did it one possession at a time. On Monday, April 6, the Nuggets trailed Portland by 16 points in the fourth quarter before Jokić powered a 137-132 overtime win with 35 points, 13 rebounds, and 13 assists. Jamal Murray added 20 points, including seven in overtime, as Denver moved into third place in the Western Conference at 51-28. (espn.com) The comeback mattered because Denver had almost no margin left in the standings. The win pushed the Nuggets a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the West’s No. 3 seed, while extending Denver’s winning streak to nine games, its longest of the season. Portland fell to 40-39, dropped into ninth place, and saw its three-game winning streak end. (espn.com) Jokić’s stat line was huge even by his own standards. The 35-13-13 game was reported as his 33rd triple-double of the season in the official game recap, another reminder that Denver’s offense still runs through him on nearly every critical trip. In practical terms, he was scoring, cleaning the glass, and creating shots for everyone else while the Nuggets chased the game. (nba.com) The shape of the game made the performance stand out even more. Portland had control deep into regulation, but Denver kept narrowing the gap until the final minutes became a half-court grind built around Jokić post touches and Murray shot-making. By overtime, the Nuggets had flipped the pressure completely, and Murray’s seven extra-period points helped finish what Jokić started. (sports.yahoo.com) Then came the part Portland fans were still talking about the next day. In the National Basketball Association’s Last Two Minute Report, the league said officials made an incorrect call with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter when Robert Williams III was whistled for a foul defending Jokić. According to the report, Jokić had clamped and held Williams’ arm, which should have been ruled an offensive foul on Denver instead. (blazersedge.com) That does not erase Denver’s rally, but it does change how the ending is remembered. The league’s review did not overturn the result, and those reports never do, yet it confirmed that one of the biggest late possessions in a one-score game was judged incorrectly in real time. In a game that reached overtime tied, that single whistle naturally became part of the story. (blazersedge.com) There is also a familiar pattern here: when Denver gets in trouble, the ball usually finds Jokić and stays there. He is not a volume scorer in the usual sense, but he controls tempo like a quarterback calling every snap, deciding whether the next possession ends with his hook shot, a cutter at the rim, or a kick-out pass to a shooter. Against Portland, that control let Denver survive a bad night for three quarters and own the last stretch of the game. (nba.com) Murray’s overtime mattered for the same reason. Jokić pulled Denver back into the game, but overtime required a second scorer who could create against a set defense, and Murray supplied that with seven of his 20 points in the extra period. That balance is what makes Denver dangerous late: Jokić bends the defense, and Murray punishes the gaps it leaves behind. (sports.yahoo.com) For Portland, the loss was the painful kind that lingers. The Trail Blazers were 16 points up in the fourth quarter, close enough late to be affected by a disputed whistle, and then walked away with neither the win nor the benefit of a corrected call. Instead of climbing in the standings, they slipped a half-game behind the Los Angeles Clippers in the race around the play-in line. (espn.com) For Denver, the night looked like one more sign that its season is sharpening at the right time. A ninth straight win, a move into the No. 3 seed, and another game in which Jokić solved everything when the offense stalled is about as strong a closing-week formula as a contender can ask for. The Nuggets did not win cleanly, and the officiating report made sure of that, but they still left with the standings boost that matters most. (espn.com)