On Wednesday evening, the Denver Nuggets improved to 9-2 with a comfortable road win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The big storyline in this game was Nikola Jokic, who scored 55 points in the contest on a hyper-efficient performance from the field, including 25 of those points in the first quarter alone.
On Thursday, former NBA All-Star point guard John Wall stopped by FanDuel's “Run It Back” show to give an interesting perspective on the way Jokic plays the game.
“He makes it look so effortless like he doesn't care about basketball. That's the frustrating part… You got guys that put all the work in and he's just out there floating,” said Wall, per Run It Back on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, Jokic has often faced joking accusations throughout his career of him not “caring” about basketball, and much more enjoying his time hanging out with horses back in Serbia.
The fact that Jokic makes the game of basketball look so effortless, as Wall noted, often helps fuel this perception.
Still, as long as he keeps putting up 55-point stat lines and the Nuggets keep winning games, fans in Denver will likely be OK.
A hot start for the Nuggets
The Nuggets have now reeled off six straight wins and nine out of their last ten after a season-opening defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. Through it all, Jokic has continued to defend his title as the best player in the world, and new teammates Cam Johnson and Tim Hardaway Jr. are starting to get more assimilated as time goes on.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Nuggets are truly on the level of teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder out West. The two squads have yet to match up this season, but seem to be the clear cut top two in the conference thus far.
The Nuggets will next take the floor on Saturday evening for a road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
