DENVER — The MVP chants rained down as thanks from the 19,592 in attendance at Ball Arena for the force and physicality inflicted by Nikola Jokic. He reduced Phoenix’s finesse to rubble in a Game 2 slugfest that concluded with Denver winning 97-87.

Jokic rocked the reeling Suns for a game-high 39 points, 16 rebounds and five assists on a night that co-star Jamal Murray struggled from the floor (3 of 15) after coming off a 34-point showing in Game 1.

The victory lifts Denver to a 2-0 series advantage in the Western Conference semifinals headed into Friday’s Game 3 at Footprint Center in Phoenix (10 ET, ESPN).

“It’s a low-scoring game,” Jokic said during his on-court postgame interview with TNT. “It was a tough game, rough game. We [found] a way, especially in the fourth quarter the defense was amazing. Even the shots that they made [were] contested. So, that’s the recipe we probably need to play.”

Regardless of what Denver decides to cook up for Game 3, it managed to establish a couple of hard truths over the first two games of the series that Phoenix will surely seek to counter back home.

First, the Nuggets proved that simply taking away Murray likely won’t get the job done in this series, especially with a team backbone like Jokic surrounded by a supporting cast capable of picking up the scoring slack. Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope combined to shoot 10 of 14 from the field and 5 of 7 from deep for 30 points. They did that while also serving as the main defenders on Phoenix stars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.

Secondly, the Nuggets continue to demonstrate that the Suns won’t be able to rely solely on big nights from their superstars in this series. Durant and Booker combined to score 59 points in Game 2 on 56 shots, while the rest of the team chipped in 28 points on 39 attempts.

“If you want to win, you’ve got to win ugly,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We had a really pretty game in Game 1, and we won ugly tonight. That’s what good teams do. Good teams find different ways to win. Tonight, was ugly. But I don’t mind ugly — 97-87 — I’ll take that all day weekly.”

We’ll dig into that and more in our five takeaways from Game 3:

Paul’s status for Game 3 uncertain

Battling Caldwell-Pope for a rebound, Suns point guard Chris Paul landed on one leg and immediately grabbed at his groin area before leaving the floor in the third quarter due to what the team described as left groin tightness.

Paul checked out with 4:32 left in the third quarter, and minutes later the team announced the veteran would not return. Suns coach Monty Williams mentioned afterward that Paul couldn’t push off his left leg, adding the team will know more Tuesday about the severity of the injury.

“It just looks like he was boxing out, and he just came up where you couldn’t push off of it or anything,” Williams said. “We aren’t quite sure what it is, but it seems to be something in the groin area.”

Paul turns 38 on Saturday and finished with eight points, five rebounds and six assists in 25 minutes before suffering the injury, hitting 3 of 3 in a third-quarter midrange clinic put on by the point guard, Booker and Durant.

If Paul can’t play on Friday, it’s likely Booker will see extra time at point guard.

“A lot comes with it, so you just have to embrace it, embrace the challenge, embrace the opportunity that we have right now, even down 0-2,” Booker said. “Get back home, protect our home court, and go from there. But a lot is on all our plates.”

Guarding Murray

Torrey Craig started every game in Phoenix’s first-round series against the LA Clippers as a potential Kawhi Leonard stopper. But Josh Okogie (who started 26 straight contests to close the regular season) replaced the 32-year-old Craig in the first group for Game 1 of this series. It’s clear the Suns view Okogie as a more suitable option than Craig as a primary defender on Murray, who hit a playoff season-high tying six 3-pointers and 13 field goals in Game 1.

Williams mentioned before tipoff that the team was pondering whether to start Okogie or Craig for Game 2, and the coach ultimately chose the former again for the Murray assignment. Okogie rewarded Williams’ faith by acquitting himself nicely against Murray in Game 2, applying constant and extensive pressure from the onset. Overall, Okogie guarded Murray 58% of the time in Game 2, holding him to 2-for-5 shooting. Murray missed the only three shots he hoisted in the first quarter, finally making his fourth attempt with 7:48 left in the second quarter.

Murray ended the night with 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting, including 0-for-9 on 3-pointers.

“Josh did a really good job on Norman Powell in the last series. So, that kind of player is somewhat similar to Jamal [Murray] even though Jamal’s all-world,” Williams said. “But we think both guys [Okogie and Craig] can guard him and make it tougher on him, especially more than we did in the [Game 1]. It is a discussion for sure in our locker room.”

Phoenix likely won’t need to revisit it anytime soon if Okogie can keep up the solid defense on Murray. After all, the Nuggets are 10-0 this season (and 3-0 in the playoffs) when Murray has 30 points or more.

A chance to catch a breath

Jokic played 20 minutes in the first half, while Gordon, Murray and Caldwell-Pope logged 18 apiece over that span. Considering the teams receive a three-day break to rest between Games 2 and 3, it was safe to assume both squads would pull out all the stops to secure a victory.

Malone made that clear even before tipoff, and it’s apparent Phoenix took a similar approach with Durant and Booker logging 21 and 22 minutes, respectively, in the first half, followed by Deandre Ayton and Paul, who both clocked 18 minutes in the first half.

Booker and Durant finished the game with 45 and 44 minutes, respectively. All of Denver’s starters (save for Michael Porter Jr., who played 23 minutes) played 39 minutes or more, with Jokic and Caldwell-Pope racking up 41 minutes apiece.

“Whatever it takes to get a win,” Malone said before tipoff. “We’ve been fortunate now in our first six games of the playoffs where we haven’t had to ride guys crazy minutes. But if we need to do that, we’ll definitely do that. We’ve gotten great productivity off our bench, and that’s one [area] I think we have an advantage. We know those guys [for Phoenix] are gonna play probably 45 minutes and above tonight. We’ll be ready for that.”

Depth issues continue for Suns

The broken record continues to play. We’ve mentioned for quite a while the advantage Denver owns in this series due to its superior depth. With Durant and Booker playing 44 minutes each in Game 2, the Suns used a total of six reserves against the Nuggets … and they combined to score a season-low four points on 2-for-16 shooting.

So, through seven games this postseason, Phoenix’s bench has been outscored 223-100, including 36-28 through the first two games of this current series.

Nuggets’ defensive plan? Copy Game 1’s

Denver stuck to its Game 1 tactic of constantly blitzing pick and rolls involving Booker and Durant while sending a second defender when one of the Suns’ stars found themselves in an isolation situation. The Nuggets employed the strategy knowing full well they’d wind up vulnerable in other areas, especially against two of the NBA’s most lethal scorers that double as experienced playmakers.

In Game 2, the Suns found ways to involve Ayton when a second defender ran at Booker or Durant, which was expected based on what Denver saw from evaluating tape from Game 1. Ayton shot 3-for-4 in the first quarter for six of the team’s first eight points, while Booker led Phoenix with seven points on 3-for-7 shooting.

Eventually, Gordon, Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown took over as the main defenders on Booker and Durant. Caldwell-Pope guarded Booker 55.4% of the time Booker was on the court. Gordon essentially shut down Durant in the second half, limiting him to 1 of 9 from the field when the two matched up. Overall, Durant shot 3-for-13 against Gordon in Game 2 as he guarded him 55.2% of the time.

Booker and Durant shot a combined 24-for-56 for the game for 59 points, hitting 6 of 20 from 3-point range.

“You could see early in [Game 1] they were really looking to get Ayton the ball in the pocket, let him make those kind of mid-range floaters. Tough 2’s don’t beat us over 48 minutes,” Malone said. “There were quite a few examples where we sent another defender at a Devin Booker, at a Kevin Durant to get the ball out of his hands. That’s where the rotations behind have to be great.

“If you’re gonna be putting two defenders on the ball, you have to have [a] great scramble fly-around mentality behind it, and I felt like we had many examples of that in Game 1.”

Perhaps enough that eventually Durant and Booker figured out how to navigate Denver’s defense. At least that’s what briefly took place in the third quarter when the duo started to cook from the midrange with some help from Paul.

But Durant shot 4 of 10 in the fourth quarter as Denver ended the game on a 17-8 run.

“They were good looks, they just didn’t go down,” Durant said.

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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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