Reigning NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokić is already an all-time great in league history, so seeing him shine in marquee games is not surprising. But how the Denver Nuggets superstar dominated Draymond Green and a red-hot Golden State Warriors team on Sunday night isn’t normal.
And Green knows it.
After Jokić dropped an absurd 32-point, 16-rebound, 16-assist triple-double (with four steals, a block, and just two turnovers on 13-of-24 shooting) in a decisive 119-103 Nuggets win, Green could only help but laugh.
In the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show, Green discussed how he had “zero answers” for the Nuggets’ big man as he unfurled a cold-blooded masterpiece. For someone of Green’s pedigree, for someone who’s as notoriously confident and self-assured as he is, it’s jarring to hear him say he pulled out his full bag of tricks and that absolutely none of them worked on the best player in the world.
Laughing is probably Green’s coping with the reality that Jokić can do whatever he wants to anyone defending him when he decides it’s time.
Here’s 3 minutes of Draymond Green laughing about how Nikola Jokić got the best of him last night, saying he had zero answers for him pic.twitter.com/e6VQn8HUuR
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) February 26, 2024
Here’s the full quote, courtesy of Green’s podcast:
“I love playing against the guys where there’s a mutual respect of the work that you put in and the work that I put in,” Green said. There’s a healthy competition, and I always enjoy the honor of playing against Joker [Jokić], a guy that I got a tremendous amount of respect for. You gotta love playing against the greats to see how you stack up, and you learn from it … tonight, he got the absolute best of me. And they (chuckles) won the game, but I had no answers, zero answers tonight.”
That sort of sentiment from someone with Green’s sterling defensive reputation might be one of the best possible endorsements of how awe-inspiring Jokić can be when he’s in “playoff mode.” As the Warriors’ anchor on defense, Green has shut down any number of NBA superstars over the years, including a younger Jokić.
But as a seasoned veteran who has now seen it all, Jokić’s game has potentially reached its final form. Where he decides he’ll take over and win a game on a whim while dropping a Wilt Chamberlain-esque stat line that we’ve seldom seen before. And in these situations, it probably doesn’t matter who’s trying to slow him down.
Tonight marks the third game of Nikola Jokic’s career where he's totaled 30+ PTS, 15+ AST, and 15+ REB, passing Wilt Chamberlain (2) and trailing Oscar Robertson (11) for second-most such games all-time. pic.twitter.com/jDHaR1YigZ
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) February 26, 2024
How you stop a dialed-in, skilled player like that is anyone’s best guess — including one of the finest defenders the sport of basketball has ever seen.
