Porter Jr. adjusting his mindset
Big 3 beginning to gel for Nuggets
DENVER — Don’t be fooled by the lopsided nature of Saturday’s win.
Baked inside of Nikola Jokic’s ho-hum triple-double and Jamal Murray’s game-high 26 points, were the seeds of a fledgling Big 3 with emerging force Michael Por ter Jr. Denver’s budding trio combined for 65 points, 23 rebounds and 18 assists as the Nuggets pummeled an over - whelmed Thunder squad.
“When we have a game like this, when ever ybody’s sharing the ball, it’s so easy to do whatever,” Jokic said when asked about his growing chemistr y with Por ter. “This game needs to show us how we can play.”
Jokic either assisted or screened on five of Porter’s seven made shots Saturday. On another, he played hot potato with Murray, who eventually gave the ball back to Por ter for a wide-open 3-point make.
“It was just fun basketball,” Porter said.
Asked whether those plays were an indication of the growing chemistr y between the trio, Por ter gave a quick retort.
“It better, we better figure it out,” he said with a smile. “… That play where I just hit Joker, he knew immediately I was going to come back of f for that shot and he screened it for me. Plays like that, that’s just chemistr y plays that happen with time. Those aren’t play calls.”
Even if the interplay between Porter and Murray is still a work in progress, the respect is there. When Jokic flung an outlet pass midway through the first quarter that found Porter open for 3, Murray’s arms shot up in the air, like a ref signaling a made field goal. Publicly, even when Porter was struggling with his shot through most of February, Murray was always the most vocal in suppor ting him.
As lethal as Jokic and Murray have proven to be, both know Porter has the potential to significantly elevate the team’s ceiling. It’s their responsibilities to help coax him along. Saturday was Porter’s third consecutive double-double, which also included 10 3-pointers during that span.
After the game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone lauded his growth.
“What I love about Michael is that he’s becoming a complete basketball player,” Malone said. “… I thought the rebounding and the defense by Michael Por ter was on-point tonight.”
This is where Porter deserves immense credit. When his 3-point shot was uncharacteristically of f the first two weeks of February, Porter honed in on the other aspects of his game — moving without the ball, hitting the glass, locking in on defense.
After games, he said he’d consult his dad, his trainer or other mentors about what they’d seen. The result was a “mindset change,” he said.
“Evenwhenmyshot wasn’t falling, I really tried not to find my energy from making shots,” Por ter said. “If I can just continue to put all those (components) together, night in and night out, not take nights of f, not take plays of f, I think that that shooting slump is going to be a blessing in disguise.”
Within that rare slump, what Porter learned was how to isolate his scoring from the rest of his game. Instead of letting his shooting performance bleed into other aspects, he practiced taking the emotion out of the game.
Saturday was a perfect example. Porter played free and easy, dropping 14 points on four 3-pointers in the first quarter. That it came just two days after misreading a potential game-tying fastbreak in Thursday’s loss to the Wizards lended credence to his growth.
“For me it is, and I think for a lot of players to reach that greatness, especially on both sides of the ball, you gotta learn how to do that,” he said. “… You can’t feed too much into what the media says, what they say on Instagram about you. There’s gonna be times during the game where you’re not playing good, and you have to learn how to just flip the switch and not dwell on the past play . ...
“So for me, lately, I’ve just been tr ying to leave my emotion at the gym,” Porter said. “If I’m frustrated after a game, it’s OK. But I’ll write down three things I think I could’ve done better, three things I think I did good. And then just leave it at that. Don’t have too much emotion because there’s so many basketball games.”
That Por ter has begun to control the mental side of being a pro is a massive development in his growth as a player. And if the Nuggets can channel the of fensive explosion they authored against Oklahoma City, there’s no capping what Denver’s Big 3 might be able to achieve.