Nikola Jokic continued from where he left off in the first game of the new NBA season against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 78th NBA season opened with a matchup between the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets, and the Los Angeles Lakers. These two teams squared off in the Western Conference Finals in the previous season, with the Colorado team dominating with a 4-1 series win.
Meanwhile, over the summer, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Darvin Ham seemed more preoccupied with the Nuggets than they should have been. They constantly made statements about how they had the Nuggets in their sights. On the other hand, the NBA Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic, enjoyed some low-key time in his hometown of Sombor, where he watched his horses race.
Kevin Garnett: How is it possible not to touch the ball all summer and calmly achieve a triple-double?!
The game ended with a victory for the Denver Nuggets with a score of 119-107. Nikola Jokic recorded 29 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, and one steal and one block with a field goal percentage of 12/22, and 3/5 from beyond the arc. It was a simply perfect performance in which Jokic once again perfectly controlled the game’s tempo while doing everything on the court.
On the other hand, the highly motivated Davis remained at 17 points and eight rebounds with a poor shooting percentage of 6/17. He did not score a single point in the second half of the game. Boston Celtics legend Kevin Garnett perhaps gave the best comment after the game: “How is it possible not to touch the ball all summer and calmly achieve a triple-double?”
Ball Arena has become an impregnable fortress when Nikola Jokic is on the court
After the game, a remarkable statistical fact was revealed: the Denver Nuggets have a record of 44-6 (88%) in the last 50 home games played with Jokic in the lineup. During that period, Nikola averaged incredible numbers: 26.4 points, 13.5 rebounds, 10.3 assists with a stellar shooting percentage of 60.9% from the field and 40.9% from three-point range.
To emphasize Jokic’s dominance, it is enough to say that in that period, the Nuggets had a record of 11-1 (91.7%) against teams featuring LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, all of whom are MVP candidates. With Jokic in this form and the rest of the players in their prime, the Denver Nuggets are on their way to becoming a new NBA dynasty.