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NEW DENVER DEFEAT: Jokić can’t dominate as much as his teammates can miss!
Nikola Jokić decided that this was the night he would harass opposing defenders by being aggressive in attacking the basket. He wanted to bury the opponent’s basket, while in his style he was playing his teammates, but the main gears of the Denver Nuggets machine were poorly lubricated. That’s why they return empty-handed from Wisconsin after a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (121:112), despite the 27th triple-double of the season from the best basketball player in the world.
Nikola Jokić finished the game with 32 points. He shot 12/14 for two, 1/2 for three and 5/7 from the free throw line. He also added 14 rebounds and 10 assists, along with a steal for another triple-double. If someone could have hit something from his teammates, they might have had a chance to win. Michael Porter Jr. shot 5/22, Jamal Murray 9/20, Russell Westbrook 4/13, Aaron Gordon 4/13…
After being limited to just eight field goal attempts by the Los Angeles Lakers, he decided to go back to adding and playing teammates, so he broke his career record with 19 assists against the Indiana Pacers. He had a different plan against the Milwaukee Bucks. He sharpened himself to shoot and score, and that’s how it was from the very beginning.
He opened the game with an easy two-pointer, and then forced a foul on Brook Lopez on a three-point shot with a trick from the schoolyard, which made the American center laugh and give Jokić a warm hug, admitting that it was a top-notch fake that he fell for. The Serbian center scored five points, but that was all on the scoreboard from the Denver Nuggets in the first few minutes. Milwaukee led 14:5 and Mike Malone had to react quickly with a timeout. Since then, the game returned to a tie.
The best NBA basketball player was in the mood to score and finished the first quarter with 16 points, along with his standard cleaning of rebounds and assisting teammates. A large number of his assists were also ruined by his teammates because they missed open shots, and even layups, otherwise Jokić would have flirted with a triple-double after the first quarter, which ended in a tie after Lillard’s three-pointer at the buzzer.
An extremely interesting game was played in Wisconsin. There was running, there was shooting, there wasn’t too much good defense, but the referees also allowed a somewhat tougher game. There were falls on the floor, hits with shoulders and hands, but the referees decided to have playoff criteria in this match.
Jokić rested for more than five minutes after playing the entire first quarter, so Murray, Westbrook and the rest of the team maintained Denver’s lead. Neither team had a significant advantage, it was played basket for basket, and when Jokić returned to the floor, he was playing his teammates more than he was scoring, which is shown by the fact that he scored only two points in the second quarter. He missed only one shot out of eight attempted and finished the half with a double-double performance of 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Denver had +3.
It is known that Denver plays excellent third quarters throughout the season, which is shown by the fact how many times Nikola stayed on the bench during the entire last 12 minutes because there was no need for him to enter when the match was decided. However, this time the situation was reversed. Although Nikola played fantastically and had 26 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists after three quarters, Giannis Antetokounmpo made sure to turn things around. He had his own show with nine points scored and brought a turnaround for the Bucks, who had a three-point lead before the fourth quarter, the same as the Nuggets had before the start of this quarter.
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According to the good old recipe, when Nikola Jokić sits on the bench, Denver suffers both in attack and in defense. The home team increased the lead, little by little it grew, and just when Joker returned to the floor, Gary Trent hit a three-pointer for +10 with six and a half minutes left for the home team’s first double-digit lead in the game. Jokić reached a triple-double with three and a half minutes left when Braun dunked brilliantly over Brook Lopez with a foul, but Milwaukee still maintained a double-digit lead against Denver.
Jokić stepped on the gas in the finish and Denver came back to minus five. However, with just under two minutes left, the Denver center made a mistake with a pass to Braun and threw the ball out of bounds, after which Antetokounmpo hit a mid-range shot for +9 and with a minute and a half left, he decided the match. There was no comeback for Denver from then on.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee to victory with 28 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists. Brook Lopez recorded 22, Damian Lillard 19, Kyle Kuzma 16, Gary Trent 15 and Thoren Prince 10 points.
Besides Jokić, on the other side, Jamal Murray stood out with 20, Christian Braun with 13 points and 10 rebounds, Julian Strother with 12, as much as Michael Porter (5/22 from the field) with 10 rebounds. Russell Westbrook was also in double figures with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists.
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Source: Mozzartsport, Foto: Imagn Images / ddp USA / Profimedia