Knicks unable to complete 4-0 road trip as Nikola Jokic records triple-double in Nuggets' win
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson drives past Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. in the first half of an NBA game Thursday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
DENVER — It was the last stop on an arduous 10-day road trip through multiple time zones, a stop 5,280 feet above sea level against the defending NBA champions with revenge on their minds. And none of that might have been enough to halt the Knicks' four-game winning streak if not for the one mountain that stood in front of them.
Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic again showed that planning a strategy to slow him on film or paper is not anything like the task of actually trying to do it on the court. He recorded 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists to lead the Denver Nuggets past the Knicks, 113-100, on Thursday night at Ball Arena.
“When you get your [butt] kicked by a team, they have our full attention,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said before the game, referring to the 36-point rout the Knicks put together against the Nuggets in January. “We don’t want to get swept by anybody. Your competitive juices kick in. We remember what happened in the Garden and we want to use that to motivate us.”
So maybe it was no coincidence that when the Nuggets dealt the final blows on the night, the game operations crew dropped “bing bong” into the arena.
The Knicks (41-28) battled behind 26 points and nine assists from Jalen Brunson and 20 points and eight rebounds from Isaiah Hartenstein. They trailed 90-88 with 8:19 left, but the Nuggets (49-21) answered with seven straight points.
“They’re obviously champions for a reason,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I thought we fought hard.”
“Yeah, he’s the MVP for a reason,” Brunson said of Jokic. “He played well. They all played well. They just made a couple more plays than us tonight. I thought we played hard. We just didn’t get the job done.”
With the Knicks trailing 97-92, Brunson drove into the lane but missed and was left protesting that he had been fouled. The Nuggets raced the other way and Alec Burks (18 points off the bench) tackled Jamal Murray for a transition take foul, giving the Nuggets a free throw, which Murray converted, and the ball. Jokic dropped in a short jumper that bounced off the top of the backboard and drew a foul on Hartenstein on the play, completing the three-point play for four points on the possession and a nine-point Denver lead.
Aiming for a 4-0 road trip, the Knicks didn’t have OG Anunoby, Julius Randle or Mitchell Robinson available, meaning the task of beating Denver and slowing Jokic was an imposing one. Asked how the Knicks could stop Jokic, Josh Hart answered honestly.
“Pray,” he said. “He’s someone you can’t really speed up. He’s just one of those guys you can’t speed up. You play tough defense, he throws up some majestic 35-footer and somehow makes it. It’s just one of those guys where it’s tough to slow him down and influence him. Obviously, we just have to be physical and have great ball pressure on him. Then pray.”
The fight was not a fair one against the defending champs, with Michael Porter Jr. scoring 31 points and Murray putting up 23.
Even as they finished this trip, the Knicks were more concerned with the bigger picture: continuing to get healthy and positioned for the postseason. They fell a half-game behind the fourth-place Magic and two games behind the third-place Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference standings.
“You want to get as high [in the standings] as you can,” Hart said. “Obviously, that’s in reach. But at the end of the day, Cleveland could lose every single game and it doesn’t mean anything. We’ve got to take care of business. If they lose every single game and we lose every single game, you know. We can’t be overly concerned about that. We’ve just got to make sure we play well, we put together wins, get healthy and go into the playoffs as strong as we can.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
