On Saturday evening, the Denver Nuggets improved to 7-2 with a comfortable home win over the Indiana Pacers. It was a monster game for Nikola Jokic, who scored 32 points to go along with 14 assists and 14 rebounds to boot.
After the game, Jokic broke down a new approach he has to dealing with officiating calls that he does not agree with.
“That's my new thing this year. I'm not going to get stressed or yell at the refs or whatever. I'm just going to try to conform my energy to the basketball place,” said Jokic, per MrBuckBuck on X, formerly Twitter.
Jokic hasn't necessarily been the most notorious complainer in the NBA over the years but he certainly has a habit of loudly making his opinion known at times with the officials, so it will be interesting to see if he actually holds up this promise throughout the course of this season.
A hot start for the Nuggets
As previously mentioned, the Denver Nuggets now sit at 7-2 and have the second best net rating in the NBA at an even 13, just decimal points behind the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Denver has reeled off wins in seven of its last eight games after a frustrating loss to the Golden State Warriors to open up the season, in a game in which Aaron Gordon dropped 50 points.
The Nuggets have been showcasing their depth on a nightly basis so far this year, with Jokic often settling for less eye-popping stat lines while letting his teammates like Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and new trade acquisition Cam Johnson do the cooking.
Still, Jokic is obviously the head of the snake, and he's still clearly more than capable of putting up mammoth numbers when his team needs him to, as was the case on Saturday night.
In any case, the Nuggets will next take the field on Tuesday evening for a road game against the Sacramento Kings. That game will tip off at 11:00 PM ET.
