Jokic’s career-high leads Nuggets to win, halts Utah’s winning streak

Nikola Jokic averages nearly 27 points per game, but on Sunday, the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year couldn’t even slow him down. Despite the imposing presence of Jazz center Rudy Gobert, Jokic exploded out of the gate, scoring 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting in a 43-point first quarter for the Nuggets that quickly turned what was expected to be a difficult game for Denver into a laugher by halftime. Jokic had 33 points at the half, leading the Nuggets to a whopping 79-54 lead.

Utah had won 11 straight games, even with star guard Donovan Mitchell out for their last two with a concussion. Mitchell returned on Sunday, but looked rusty, shooting only 3-for-12 from the field as the Nuggets put their division rival’s streak to an end.

As Jokic was nearing 50 points in the fourth quarter, his teammates tried to get him over the finish line, encouraging him to shoot, and imploring head coach Michael Malone to leave him in.

“I told him a couple of minutes before, ‘Go get 50.’ But you know him — he don’t care about that kind of stuff,” forward Will Barton said after the game. “We definitely wanted the big fella to get ‘five-oh’ tonight.”

Jokic has had notable success against Gobert in the past, forcing the lanky Frenchman out of his comfort zone in the paint, and when Gobert stayed there on Sunday, Jokic made him pay from behind the arc, where he went a perfect 4-for-4 on three-point attempts.

Jokic finished the game with a career-high 47 points, to go along with 12 rebounds and five assists, but wasn’t concerned about reaching 50.

“I am hoping I’m going to score when we need it; I think we didn’t need it,” Jokic explained. “I think the main thing is (to) just win the game. I’m going to score however much I need to just to win the game.”

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NEXT UP: Nuggets (12-8) vs. Pistons (5-15) | Monday, Feb. 1 at 7:00 p.m.

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TEAM NOTES

• The Nuggets shot a season-high 64.3 percent on threes Sunday, including a 15-for-17 performance in the first half. “I think we just caught fire,” forward Will Barton said after the game. “We talked, pregame, about how good they were from the three-point line. We didn’t come out saying we wanted to match them; that was a thing that just happened. We wanted to really focus on defense, but we came out shooting the ball pretty well.”

• Denver had six players score in double-figures: Nikola Jokic (47), Will Barton (18), Jamal Murray (16), Michael Porter Jr. (11), Facundo Campazzo (11) and Paul Millsap (10).

• In the 10 games that forward Michael Porter, Jr. missed due to the league’s COVID-19 protocol, the Nuggets went 6-4. Since Porter’s return, Denver’s gone 5-1. Porter’s averaged 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in 24.3 minutes during that span.

• After starting the season 1-4, the Nuggets are 11-4 (.733) since.

• In the offseason, the Nuggets were spurned by free agent forward Jerami Grant, who left Denver to join Detroit for a three-year, $60 million deal. Grant — and former Nuggets center Mason Plumlee — are expected to face their former teammates when they return to Denver for Monday night’s game.

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PLAYER NOTES:

• Gary Harris suffered a left thigh strain after playing nine minutes during Sunday’s game and did not return. Facundo Campazzo got increased playing time in Harris’s absence and scored 11 points with five assists.

• Nikola Jokic’s 33 first-half points were the most in the NBA this season. He finished with 47 points and 12 rebounds. Jokic’s 20 straight double-doubles is the second-longest streak to start the season in NBA history. Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton holds the record with 34.

• Will Barton found his shooting stroke on Sunday, delivering 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including a terrific 5-for-6 performance from behind the arc. Barton also led the Nuggets with six assists.

• JaMychal Green scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter.

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THE FINAL WORD

“I’m oblivious. I have no idea at that point Nikola (Jokic) has 47 (points). Jamal (Murray) was kind of breaking my chops about that, and I love the fact that he’s thinking about his teammate.” — Head coach Michael Malone, on not noticing how close Jokic was to reaching 50 points on Sunday.

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INJURY WATCH

• Gary Harris (left thigh strain) left the Jan. 31 game and did not return.

• P.J. Dozier (right hamstring strain) has been out since Jan. 26. He is day-to-day.

• Greg Whittington (left knee) underwent arthroscopic surgery on Jan. 19 and was expected to miss four-to-six weeks.

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ROTATION (MINUTES)

Starters:
— G Jamal Murray (34)
— G Gary Harris (9)
— F Will Barton (37)
— F Paul Millsap (22)
— C Nikola Jokic (37)

Bench:
— G Monte Morris (26)
— F-C JaMychal Green (24)
— F Michael Porter, Jr. (20)
— G Facundo Campazzo (19)
— G R.J. Hampton (6)
— C-F Bol Bol (2)
— F Vlatko Cancar (2)
— G Markus Howard (2)
— F-C Zeke Nnaji (2)
— C-F Isaiah Hartenstein (DNP-CD)

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