PHOENIX – All of Nikola Jokic’s brilliance couldn’t out-shine the Suns in Game 4 here Sunday night.
Serve: Held. Series: Tied. From here: Best of three beginning Tuesday in Denver for a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
This is where the Nuggets and Suns find themselves after Devin Booker and Kevin Durant dazzled for 36 points apiece and Phoenix outlasted Denver, 129-124, to level the series at two home wins apiece.
“It’s an interesting series and hopefully we can protect our court like we’ve been doing all year,” Jokic said after scoring a career-high 53 points and adding 11 assists. “We did our job and they did their job, so I think at the end of it, it’s going to be an interesting Game 5.”
A pivotal one, too, after Phoenix’s superstar duo carried the Suns for most of the night and then reserve guard Landry Shamet provided a late boost off the bench. He knocked down four 3-pointers in the final frame and finished with 19 points, helping the hosts stave off the best scoring outing of Jokic’s playoff career.
Jokic scored 18 in the third quarter alone and made 20 of 30 from the floor overall, at times almost single-handedly keeping Denver’s hopes at a 3-1 series lead alive with a dizzying array of post moves, floaters, jumpers and put-backs.
“He was great. That’s what great players do this time of year,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, calling Jokic’s performance “unbelievably efficient.”
“Joker was amazing,” forward Aaron Gordon said. “Just playing through the fouls, playing through the physicality they were allowing to be played on him and how physical the defense was on him. Being able to play through that and still create, make shots and really carry a lot of the scoring load is just incredible.”
The Nuggets trailed by three and had the ball with 45.5 seconds to go after a successful Michael Malone challenge, but Jokic lost control of the ball and then lost a jump ball against DeAndre Ayton. From there, Phoenix salted the game away from the free-throw line.
Much of the credit for Phoenix’s Game 4 win and the series returning to level, of course, belongs to Booker and Durant. They blitzed the Nuggets for 158 combined points over two games on their home floor.
Booker made 14 of 18 shots overall Sunday, none bigger than back-to-back 3s late in the third to give Phoenix a 98-92 lead after three quarters. Over two games, he connected on 34 of 43 from the floor and scored 83 points.
On this night, they also got seven 3s from Shamet (five) and Terrence Ross (two) in support. That pair powered a 40-11 advantage in bench points for the Suns, who also doubled up Denver in transition scoring (20-10).
“Give credit to Landry Shamet,” Malone said. “We were trying to make other guys beat us not named Booker, not named Durant.”
Shamet did. One of many defensive shortcomings for Denver in the series’ second stanza. After holding Phoenix to an average of 97 points at Ball Arena, the Nuggets surrendered 125 per game at Footprint Center.
“We definitely need defense,” Malone said when asked what needs to change going forward. “The two games in Denver, I felt our defense was great and we left it somewhere in the desert. It didn’t arrive in Phoenix. Going home, that’s got to be paramount, if we’re going to go up 3-2 and get control of the series again.”
In addition to his scoring brilliance, Jokic picked up an unsportsmanlike technical foul late in the second quarter when he made contact on the baseline with Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who held the ball after it bounded into the first row and resisted when Jokic tried to grab it from him.
Malone couldn’t believe Jokic received a technical when “some fan” tried to keep the ball away from him. Jokic questioned why he wasn’t protected from interference from the crowd and when asked if he was worried about further punishment, up to a potential suspension, he responded incredulously, “Why?”
If Jokic’s read on the situation is right, all of this star power will be back in action at Ball Arena on Tuesday night to begin a best-of-three.
“We obviously wanted to get one here on the road … but we’re very confident,” Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. (11 points on 4-of-13 shooting and 10 rebounds) said. “It’s the best out of three now and we’ve got to get two more.
“It’s a fun series. This is what the playoffs are about.”
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