INDIANAPOLIS — Nikola Jokic’s eyes lit up more than usual when the next question was about basketball.
In a week of shock and grief, the sport Jokic is widely perceived to trivialize has in fact been a sanctuary and source of joy. He didn’t want to speak much about his former coach, Dejan Milojevic, during his first interview since Milojevic’s unexpected death at age 46 last week. But when the questions turned from that topic to the Nuggets’ stirring 114-109 over the Pacers, Jokic — a superstar known for his occasionally sardonic dealings with the press — enthusiastically reviewed the game.
Of all the ways to honor his mentor, that might have been the most fitting.
With subtlety and passion for basketball, the connection they shared.
“I don’t want to make a circus of it,” Jokic said Tuesday, acknowledging that it has been a sad week for him. “My whole family was shocked. … I love his whole family.”
Jokic’s wife and daughter made a rare road game appearance for Denver’s win Sunday in Washington, where he scored a season-high 42 points on 15-of-20 shooting. It was the first time they had a chance to be together since the tragic news that shook the NBA and international basketball community. Milojevic, who was an assistant coach for the Warriors, suffered a heart attack during a team dinner last Tuesday and died the next day.
Jokic played under Milojevic at the Serbian club Mega Basket before and after the Nuggets drafted him in 2014. Under Milojevic, the center won MVP of the Adriatic League.
He has ascended beyond the wildest expectations for an NBA second-round pick in the years since, winning two league MVPs and an NBA Finals MVP. Even with all of those accolades, Jokic’s last three games might have been some of his greatest and most meaningful.
He scored 34 points in the Nuggets’ signature win at Boston, including a pair of clutch baskets essential in ending the Celtics’ 27-game, 10-month home winning streak. He received soaring ovations and a startling “M-V-P” chant from opposing fans in D.C.
And he did it again Tuesday, cementing a 31-point triple-double with a dagger 3-pointer in Indiana. The shot clock buzzer-beater materialized out of Jokic’s scorching-hot two-man game with Jamal Murray and gave the Nuggets a 114-109 lead with 4.7 seconds left. Earlier this month, Orlando also blitzed Murray out of Jokic’s ball screen when Denver had the last shot in a one-possession game. The play went awry that time.
“I think we just keep evolving our reads and our counters,” Murray said. “It’s just fun to have a partner like that to be able to play with, where he’s so unselfish. That’s the best way for me to put it. He’s just playing the game, and whatever happens, happens. There’s a lot of teams in the NBA that don’t have that. I’m blessed to be here, to play with him and play for a guy like that my whole career.”
In Denver’s three consecutive road wins, the duo is averaging 64 points, 19.3 rebounds and 15.3 assists combined — on 58.1% shooting from the field and 43.8% shooting from three.
“We are making shots. It’s easier when you make shots,” Jokic said. “Whoever (it is). Me or whoever, you know? Just as a team, when you’re making shots, the whole team gains confidence and wants to shoot when they’re open. And that’s really hard to guard.”
In road environments like Boston and Indianapolis, where two high-powered offenses thrive, the confidence Jokic identified was also able to translate toward championship-caliber containment. The Celtics have the No. 1 home offensive rating in the league. They scored 100 against Denver, their fewest points at TD Garden this season. The Pacers are close behind with the No. 2 home offense. The Nuggets held them to 109, their third-lowest total at home.
Indiana is the team with the most accurate name in the NBA. But Denver out-paced the Pacers twice in as many weeks. Fast break points were 18-4 this time, spoiling Pascal Siakam’s home debut.
“The first half was bad. The second half, just the effort of not celebrating,” Jokic said, laughing. “Just, when you score, sprint back. Set our defense. I think when we set our defense, our defense is really good.”
As he spoke in the visiting locker room at Gainbridge Fieldhouse late Tuesday, four different Nuggets players had just pulled out their phones individually to watch the end of another game on NBA League Pass. It had personal implications. The Thunder escaped an upset from Portland. The night was over, and the Western Conference standings had settled into a tidy three-way tie at the top. OKC, Denver and Minnesota. Jokic was practically the only player not watching on his phone.
“It’s too early right now. I mean, I would watch a game, but I would not watch (the standings),” he said.
Whether or not he cares yet, Denver has caught up with the other two teams largely thanks to Jokic’s efficient dominance in the last three road games.
As he carried the Nuggets to first place, he was carrying something new with him: the responsibility of honoring his teacher.
“I love him,” Jokic said in his brief comments about Milojevic. For an athlete so private and intent on concealing emotions, saying that was enough.
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