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Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic is viewed as one of the best centers in today's NBA. Standing at seven feet and 250 pounds, he's a solid rim protector, but he's also a great shooter. Oh, and let's not forget his knack for facilitating. These traits have been on display at times throughout Denver's first round playoff series against the Utah Jazz, but it seems The Joker needs to elevate his level of play even more to keep his team's playoff aspirations alive.
After falling to the Jazz in Game 4, 129-127, the Nuggets find themselves trailing in the series by a count of three games to one. As most hoops fans know, it's nearly impossible to recover from such a deficit in the postseason, but there is a chance.
“Do you think you have enough to get back in this series?,” a reporter asked Jokic following Game 4.
“Yes,” Nikola Jokic said with a brief pause. “We cannot think of this as a three-game (series) now. We need to take it each game at a time.”
If Denver wants to climb from this proverbial hole, they'll need a solid effort from Jokic on both ends of the floor. His numbers in this series are not terrible, but there seems to have been a lack of effort on the defensive end of the floor at times. Normally, this is a guy who swats a fair amount of shots. Notably, though, he has two blocks through the first four games of this series.
Blocks aren't really the glaring issue with Nikola Jokic, though. It's his plus/minus scores that have been uncharacteristic. In Game 1 — the lone victory for Denver in this series — the Serbian-born center racked up 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting (4-of-7 from beyond the arc), 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block. His plus/minus for that performance? +7.
That was his best plus/minus score of the series thus far. The others? -23 in Game 2, -21 in Game 3 and -1 in Game 4. For casual fans, the plus/minus stat reflects how well a team performs while the given player is on the court. A measure of +5, for instance, means the team outscored their opponent by five points while he or she was on the floor.
Another issue for Jokic has been his lack of trips to the free throw line. It's an aspect of the game that's out of his control, as he isn't the one blowing the whistles. However, this is an area that he could look at improving.
Nikola Jokic had three attempts from the stripe in Game 1. Game 2 was far better, as he made it to the line for 10 attempts. However, he had just two attempts in Game 3 and two in Game 4.
The Nuggets and Jazz will meet for Game 5 on Tuesday night. Tip-off inside the NBA's bubble complex is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. TNT will have live broadcast coverage.
Let's see if Jokic answers the bell. Will the 3rd-seeded Nuggets live to fight another day, or will it be Utah advancing to the second round?
