Have you ever watched a sports performance so incredible that you're just happy to be there? Elated to have even witnessed it? You just leave the night feeling... lucky?
That's how Nikola Jokić's Game 5 felt. This isn't hyperbole; the former second-round pick had one of the greatest postseason showcases in NBA history on Tuesday night. It certainly felt like the best game of his prolific nine-year career.
Jokić finished with 40 points on 15-of-22 shooting, 13 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 block, and 2 steals. He became the first player to ever score or assist on 70 or more points in a playoff game without committing a single turnover. He was brilliant from start to finish.
It was a performance so special and so outrageous that as we media trickled into the press room, all we could do was look at each other and shake our heads in awe. Maybe even in disgust. There might've been a few word utterances like, "That dude is GOOD" or "He is not human" or even "What on earth... was that?" But for the most part, the media room was silent. Everyone was in shock.
We weren't the only ones who felt that way.
"I’m not even entirely sure what I just watched," said Aaron Gordon.
Just days after writing that Nikola delivered "a pantheon-level performance" in Game 4, he somehow one-upped it.
"Every time we think we've got him figured out, the Serbian maestro finds new ways to impress," I wrote after Game 4. It took him just 48 hours to, once again, exceed expectations. Go up another level. Break our understanding of what is possible from the three-time MVP.
This is quickly becoming an all-time series for Jokić. It's becoming the Nikola Jokić series. When it's all said and done and we're stacking his name up with the greats, this might be the series we point to as evidence that he belongs in that class. Game 5 was his piece de resistance. The final brushstroke of the Sistine Chapel. The last lilypad of a Claude Monte masterpiece.
Less than seven short days ago from the timing of this writing, Denver was in a 0-2 hole to the Minnesota Timberwolves. A gutsy win in Game 3 gave the good guys some hope, and then Jokić captained an incredible road victory in Game 4. His all-time performance in Game 5 helped the Nuggets capture a 3-2 lead in the second-round series and potentially set up one of the most miraculous turnarounds we've seen in recent history. A win on Thursday in Minnesota would complete that massive comeback.
The longer this series goes on, the more comfortable Jokić has looked. Seeing the same defense for five straight games certainly helps; that's just more information for Nikola's supercomputer brain to process, synthesize, and derive counters against.
Denver's coaching staff also deserves major credit. They've drawn up the right looks versus Minnesota's top-ranked defense.
The Timberwolves prefer to have their Defensive Player of the Year center, Rudy Gobert, lurk off-ball and blow up plays as a free safety of sorts. To do this, they've had Gobert primarily defend Aaron Gordon, who typically hovers in the two dunker spots next to the basket in Denver's offense. Here's a screenshot from Game 1 of Gobert cheating off Gordon in the left dunker spot to give Karl-Anthony Towns extra help with Jokić.
One way to counter Gobert's "roaming" is to involve him in plays directly. Having Gordon or Jokić run the pick-and-roll as the ball-handler while the other player screens is a great way to make it impossible for Gobert to lurk. He has to step up and defend ball screens if his man, Gordon, is part of the action.
Here, it's Jokić who runs the offense with Gordon screening. Minnesota switches on the play, with Towns grabbing Gordon and Gobert guarding Jokić. Nikola then puts on a post-up clinic and spins his way into a bucket high off the glass using his balletic footwork.
In this play, however, those roles are switched. This time it's Gordon handling the ball with Jokić screening in a four-five pick-and-roll. Minnesota once again concedes the switch, and Nikola flambées the future Hall of Famer with a nasty drop step going to his left.
Jokić cooking Gobert was a theme on Tuesday night. He went 8-of-9 from the field on plays defended by the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year. It didn't matter where he attacked from—the right block, the top of the key, or even in transition—Nikola absolutely vaporized the 7'1 big man.
He'd back him down and loft soft hook shots over the top. He'd face up and then rip through to catch Gobert completely off guard. Denver also went to pick-and-rolls with Jokić handling the ball to give him deep positioning against Rudy. On fastbreak possessions, Nikola would drive right through him to draw fouls.
In short, he eviscerated him in every possible way you could think of. What's crazy is that in most if not all of these clips, Gobert is playing pretty great defense. He gets a hand up against every single shot attempt. Nikola was just that dialed-in offensively.
And look, even when Minnesota did get to its preferred defensive look—with Gobert lurking nearby as a secondary shot-blocker—Jokić still got his way.
Here, Gordon is in the dunker spot, and so Gobert cheats over to help Jaden McDaniels with the Serbian big man. Jokić responds by looking up toward the rim as if he's about to shoot only to slip a jaw-dropping pass to Gordon for the dunk. He had the Timberwolves seeing ghosts out there.
Or, he'd just attack early and beat Gobert to his spot as the secondary shot-blocker.
Jokić also beat the "roaming Gobert" strategy with his expert cutting. One of Nikola's most underrated skills is his ability to face cut (a cut to the basket in front of the defender's face). That skill is especially useful in Denver's inverted go-and-go's.
Normally on give-and-go's, it's a guard passing to the big man and then cutting to the rim. But on these plays, it's Jokić who makes the pass before bolting to the basket. He's got to be the only center in the league who's featured in give-and-go's this way at this frequency, and it's all because of his innate sense of timing as a cutter.
Here, getting off the ball early and cutting to the basket hard completely dusts his primary defender, Towns, and it also surprises Gobert as the helper. His give-and-go's were just as effective when Towns and Gobert's roles were swapped.
(Name pending for the Jokić face cut: "The Sombor Slice." Thoughs?)
Give-and-go's weren't the only way that Denver inverted the floor. They also ran oddball pick-and-rolls to really confuse Minnesota's defense.
Normally in the pick-and-roll, the big man screens for the guard to set up the action. However, because of Jokić's unique ability to handle the ball, pass better than anyone in the world, and score from all three levels, Denver can get creative with ball-screen sets.
Denver ran "inverted" pick-and-rolls with one of their guards screening for Jokić in Game 5. These plays are effective because they put defenders in extremely unfamiliar positions. Opposing centers are forced to get around screens, which is not a skill they're asked of often, and opposing guards might have to jam screens and prevent drives to the rim... like a center. Their roles are reversed, thus "inverted."
Head coach Michael Malone ran inverted pick-and-rolls on three separate occasions and got good offense every single time.
Jamal Murray screening for Jokić in the first quarter gave Nikola a wide-open dunk when Gobert and Anthony Edwards miscommunicated. An inverted ball screen in the second quarter generated a Reggie Jackson floater high off the glass. Denver's prettiest inverted pick-and-roll was in the third quarter when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope screened for Jokić and then popped behind the arc. Towns was so surprised by the action that he nearly fell to the floor after Caldwell-Pope's screen. He then spun out like a streetcar while trying to gather his bearings.
That's 7 points in three possessions or 2.33 points per possession on inverted pick-and-rolls in Game 5. Nasty efficiency on such a creative play call.
Again, the coaching staff deserves its flowers for their ingenuity in Game 5. They went to a ton of different looks and play calls to constantly give Jokić advantageous looks. Flipping through so many different setups–Jokić screening for Gordon, Gordon screening for Jokić, post-up plays for Jokić, inverted pick-and-rolls for Jokić, face-ups at the top of the key—made it impossible for Minnesota's defense to get comfortable. They rarely knew what was coming. Malone made sure to never show the NBA's best defense a steady diet of one thing. Minnesota had a real angst about them by the end of the night.
This was my favorite play call of the night. Denver went to a HORNS look with a player handling the ball up top (Jokić), two players at the elbows (Murray and Gordon), and two players stashed in the corners (Caldwell-Pope and Michael Porter Jr.).
Jokić passed the ball to Gordon and then came off a back screen (an off-ball screen that faces the opposite baseline) from Murray to get deep positioning against Naz Reid. The action then flowed into a high-low, with one big man (Gordon) pinging the ball over the top of the defense to the other big man (Jokić) for the bucket.
Such a gorgeous play.
Now, offense wasn't the only area of the floor that Jokić absolutely dominated in. He also put up a herculean effort as a defender. With starting point guard, Mike Conley, out with Achilles tendon soreness, Minnesota ran much of their offense through superstar shooting guard, Anthony Edwards. Denver responded by throwing the kitchen sink at him on ball screens, in transition, and on isolation possessions.
Jokić was a major component in that. When Minnesota went to the pick-and-roll for Edwards, Nikola played "at the level" of the ball screen with his feet touching the three-point line (check out our Game 1 Film Study to learn more about "at the level" defense). Sometimes, he'd even defend screen-and-roll actions with both feet above the three-point line. This was all done to make it impossible for Edwards to turn the corner and dash to the basket using his explosive first step. Nikola's pick-and-roll positioning was pristine.
Edwards finished the night with just 18 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Denver came to the table with the perfect game plan on Tuesday—with Jokić as the centerpiece.
Fittingly, Nikola's euphoric night ended in the most magical way possible. A between-the-legs, hesitation-move, side-step three-pointer with the shot clock expiring.
The perfect nightcap for an all-time playoff performance.
Nikola Jokić was untouchable on Tuesday night. Incapable of missing. For 41 minutes of Game 5, his basketball powers reached a divine status. He transcended what is possible for the rest of us human beings. A seminar in basketball excellence from the single-most complete offensive player in NBA history.