Poke Jokic to beat Denver
With a takedown of knucklehead Markieff Morris that would make Ric Flair proud, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic proved he’s more likely to win a WWE championship belt than take home a championship ring from the NBA Finals.
If the reigning MVP is the team’s tough guy, the Nuggets are doing it all wrong.
Before his teammates took the court Wednesday against Indiana, Jokic told coach Michael Malone he would serve his onegame suspension by sitting at home with a glass of red wine in his hand and his newborn baby girl on his lap.
“I said I hope your baby has a bad case of diarrhea,” Malone joked.
For better or worse, many of my lessons in basketball theory were taught by Doug Moe. The Big Stiff preached that a team was especially dangerous in the first game after losing a star. Why? Everyone plays with more purpose and less selfishness. So maybe that explains how Denver, led by 30 points from Will Barton, beat the Pacers 101-98.
Barton sent a heartfelt message to Joker: “Can’t wait to get you back.”
Amen, brother.
Let’s celebrate the resilience demonstrated by this victory, then get down to the real nitty gritty.
When a knucklehead tries to mess with Joker, it’s beneath the MVP to do the dirty work of mopping the hardwood with the snarky mug of his antagonizer.
Back in the day, if you messed with Michael Jordan, you had to answer to Horace “The Enforcer” Grant or Dennis “The Worm” Rodman. In more recent basketball history closer to home, Carmelo Anthony had Kenyon Martin covering his backside.
On this softly constructed Denver roster, who commits the hard fouls so Jokic doesn’t have to slap Phoenix guard Cameron Payne in the mug? Bol Bol?
“I don’t know if the NBA enforcer or the role of that still exists,” said Malone, emphasizing the sport has changed since an era when champions in Detroit were proud to be called Bad Boys.
Malone, however, also firmly believes: “We have some guys on this team that are tough and are not willing to just walk away and allow us to be treated as a bunch of punks.”
I’m not so certain. When push comes to shove, are these Nuggets tough enough physically or mentally to win the NBA championship? President of basketball operations Tim Connelly needs to add some beef and bite to this team.
This design weakness in the Denver roster shouldn’t be left to Joker’s vigilante brothers to bare their testosterone and act like roughnecks so cartoonish they belong in a “Saturday Night Live” skit rather than anywhere near an NBA court.
The Jokic Brothers’ taunting of the Morris twins on Twitter is all funny ha-ha until a courageous arena usher fails to prevent Strahinja or Nemanja Jokic from stepping out of the stands to join the fracas. Don’t come asking me to bail them out when it happens.
It’s undeniably true Jokic doesn’t get the respect from referees the MVP deserves. And this disrespect understandably does not sit well with Joker, his coach or Nuggets fans.
“The league, to (its) credit, has always been very willing to engage in conversations. Obviously, we had a lot of those last year. There were conversations where we felt Nikola, who wound up winning the MVP, wasn’t getting the benefit of the whistle,” Malone said.
“Does he get frustrated? Do we get frustrated? Of course … This season, when you look around the landscape of the NBA, I think I’ve seen probably four or five marquee players have already come out publicly to blame the referees for their slow starts and not getting to the free-throw line.”
Anyone who thinks that by establishing himself as a hothead, Joker will earn a more favorable whistle might want to take another toke from that bowl on a chilly Colorado evening.
Twice within a span of 11 games, Jokic has allowed his short fuse to explode with a rage that resulted in ejection.
He got frustrated and took a swing at Payne as Denver was swept from the playoffs by Phoenix.
He allowed himself to be goaded by Morris, whose middle name is Mischief.
I love Joker. You love Joker. We all love Joker. But if he wants to get his hands on the Larry O’brien Trophy instead of a WWE championship belt, losing his cool is a nasty habit Jokic needs to break.
The blueprint for how to beat Denver when push comes to shove under playoff duress has been written:
Poke the bear until Joker loses his ever-loving mind and cracks.