Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama are the other two finalists. Gilgeous-Alexander is considered a heavy favorite to win the award for a second straight season. Jokic was the runner-up to him in 2025.

The winner is usually announced early in the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Jokic, 31, joined Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players to average a triple-double for an entire season last year. Now he has accomplished the feat twice in a row, after averaging 27.7 points per game and leading the league in rebounds (12.9) and assists (10.7). If he finishes first or second place, he’ll join Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players to with six straight top-two seasons. He has won three times in his 11-year NBA career.

Jokic secured his eligibility for the accolade by playing his 65th game on the last night of the regular season, narrowly meeting the NBA’s quota to appear on awards ballots. He missed four weeks in January after hyperextending his left knee and suffering a bone bruise.

The league unveiled the three leading vote getters for all of its individual awards Sunday. Two other Nuggets were recognized. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year alongside Miami’s Jaime Jaquez and San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson. Jamal Murray is up for Clutch Player of the Year against Gilgeous-Alexander and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards.

There were too many injuries, too many different lineups, too many untimely freak plays and clutch conundrums. The story of their year seemed well established by mid-March as one of repressed talent.

Yet here they were, pulling away from Memphis after halftime for a comfortable 136-119 win Wednesday, their tenth in a row for the first time in Nikola Jokic’s illustrious 11-year NBA career. The Serbian big man has won three MVP trophies. He has shepherded Denver to a championship. But never to a win streak this prolonged. The limit was always single digits. Until now, with two games to go in the 2025-26 regular season.

“I didn’t know that,” a surprised Jokic said afterward.

“I had no idea that was the case, and I’ve been here for (almost) all those years,” coach David Adelman added. “I don’t know (why we haven’t). I’ve been around aggressive losing streaks before in Minnesota, and they just last forever and ever. So this has been unique. This whole season has been unique, man. I feel like we played really well at the start, and then we survived for three months, and now we’re playing really well again. … Cool way to close it out with three to go. Hopefully momentum-building. It feels like it is, with the vibe of the group.”

The Nuggets (52-28) started their surge from a sixth-place vantage point in the Western Conference. They’ve spent three weeks riding the wave all the way to third, which they suddenly control by a game and a half over the ailing Los Angeles Lakers.

“I don’t think we cared about the standings,” Aaron Gordon said, “so much as we cared about how we were playing.”

Adelman was adamant his team was playing well before the streak even started brewing. In the most daunting week of their schedule, the Nuggets went 2-2, playing four games in four cities against four Western Conference playoff teams. Both losses were at the buzzer, decided by MVP candidates. Missed opportunities left a bitter sting. Players vented in the locker room about defensive inconsistency and situational decision-making after Luka Doncic’s game-winner in Los Angeles. Four days later, they stumbled out of bed into a back-to-back at Memphis and lost a dud.

That was their most recent defeat. Since then, a more friendly schedule — eight home games in the last 10, only one back-to-back, one top-six opponent in the West — has helped prove Adelman right. The signs were already there. The results were delayed.

“Anxiety was felt in the locker room that week,” Adelman reflected. “We knew what we were about to play against. And to have the game in LA end so crazy … you leave that week feeling like, OK, we’re where we’re supposed to be. We’re up there with this group of teams. Now let’s join them. Let’s go win some games and put ourselves in a good spot.”

Jokic amassed 14 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists by the end of the third quarter Wednesday. He didn’t touch the court in the fourth. It was his 34th triple-double of the season, tying last year’s career high, and the 198th of his career. With two games remaining, he has a chance to join Russell Westbrook as the only players in NBA history with 200. Westbrook reached the milestone at 36 years old as a Nugget. Whether Jokic does it this week or has to wait a few more months, he’ll be 31.

He’s also within two triple-doubles of Westbrook for the most in league history including playoff games (221 to 219).

“We just wanted to play good. … We need to play good and feel good about ourselves,” Jokic said of the streak, “just because the league is so talented. Anybody can beat everybody.”

The Nuggets have won six games involving clutch time during the streak, correcting a trend of fourth-quarter execution issues. (Jamal Murray has cited their rediscovered floor-spacing consistency, now that Gordon is back in the lineup.) They’ve gotten their turnover rate under control — an NBA-best 10.9% over the last 10 games, with three assists per turnover. Their overall offensive rating has also been tops in the league by a resounding 3.1 points per 100 possessions.

Defensively, they’ve been better situationally, yet they still rank 20th during the streak. They’re still stubbornly selective about when and for how long they care to exert maximum effort. They offered almost no 1-on-1 resistance in the first half Wednesday against a severely depleted Memphis team that’s counting down the days to the offseason. But their offense has been so unstoppable that their defense could afford to be lackluster, to a point.

Does that qualify as peaking at the right time? Does the timing of the win streak matter? Denver’s players and coaches remain acutely aware of the flaws that have lingered throughout these 10 games and are unlikely to go away in a playoff series.

“I think good teams kind of hang their hat on defense and force teams to play bad, and I think we need to do a better job of that,” Christian Braun said. “But peaking at the right time is probably a (real) thing, especially with health. For us right now, I think guys are starting to get healthy. … We want to peak at the right time health-wise.”‘

“Every season is different, you know?” Jamal Murray said. “I feel like we’re just trying to get everybody healthy. That’s the priority. This year, it’s just get everybody healthy. Get the defense right and get everybody in rhythm offensively. That’s what it is this year.”

Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones are the last to be playing catch-up from a health standpoint as Denver prepares for its final regular-season meetings with Oklahoma City and San Antonio. In the meantime, 10 is a round number worth appreciating in Adelman’s eyes. If nothing else, it’s a token of the Nuggets’ resilience at the end of a season that has felt longer and weirder than most. He remembers watching Houston’s 22-game win streak in 2008, when his dad was the head coach.

“They never looked at it like ‘the streak,'” he said. “They looked at it like, ‘We need to win the next game.’ That’s how these guys have been.”

And Draymond Green may be a lot of things. But the man’s no fool.

“What we’ve seen now is the tip of the iceberg (for Watson). He ain’t even scratched the surface yet,” “Peyton Watson is going to be an elite NBA player … so, y’all keep an eye out for Peyton Watson. That kid is going to be an All-Star. No questions asked.”

Exactly. And yet, because it’s April, because it’s “Where Will LeBron Play Next Year” season, silly questions give way to even sillier suggestions.

On Tuesday, longtime ESPN scribes Dave McMenamin and Tim Bontemps authored a piece for Worldwide Leader’s website — including one that featured the Nuggets. In it, they speculated that Denver and Los Angeles could work out a sign-and-trade that would see the Lakers land Peyton Watson (a former UCLA star and Long Beach native) or Cam Johnson for the King. This was backed by an unnamed source, a “West executive,” who suggested:

“Who is the only guy on (James’) level from a basketball IQ standpoint in the league? Go there and team up with that guy.”

‘There’ would be the Front Range. The ‘only guy’ would be Nikola Jokic. Fun? Sure. Flattering? No doubt. But for Watson? Who ships a 23-year-old player coming into their prime for a soon-to-be 42-year-old? Even if that middle-aged wonder is one of the best five guys to ever play the game?

Yes, Tom Brady won a Super Bowl at age 42. Barry Bonds, at the same age, led the National League in walks (132). Some 44 years earlier, a 42-year-old Warren Spahn led the National League in wins (23). Age is just a number.

Although the numbers in this scenario are bonkers. Especially when you consider that, odds are, James is staying put with the Lakers, popping back to the Cavaliers, or hanging it up. Of the ESPN.com hypotheticals, Denver was fifth on the list — and it’s hard to believe King James’ camp, once push comes to shove, would even have to dig that deep.

But let’s humor the concept for a second.

There’s the cost, for one thing. Watson is a restricted free agent after the season who’s made the Nuggets look bad for not giving him an extension earlier — putting up, as of Tuesday evening, career highs in points (14.9 per game) and rebounds. A show-stopping leaper and defender over his first three seasons on Chopper Circle, at age 23, he’s evolved into a foundational, two-way wing whose jumper now complements years of sky-walking athleticism. He’s also currently sporting a team-friendly $4.36 million cap number. That’s about to be tripled, or quadrupled, by somebody.

King James is slated to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent coming off a $52.6 million cap hit this season following a $48.7 million hit in ’24-25. If he’s going to give any franchise a “hometown” discount, it’s more likely to be given to his actual hometown — Cleveland — than to the Nuggets. If the Kroenkes can’t afford Watson, how would they turn around and justify stretching the cap that much more for James?

There are the realities of the East vs. the West. If the King wants at least one more ring, more power to him. Oklahoma City’s core is young enough that they’re not going anywhere, and the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama are right behind them. The road back to the Finals in the East through Detroit, Boston and New York is far easier than the brutal hellscape of the current West bracket.

There’s the fit. Remember The Russell Westbrook Experience? Now picture that vibe, times about 50. As part of Team ‘Bron, the Joker might start seeing kinder foul calls come his way more consistently. But when you get The King, you get his demands, his parameters, his show. And maybe his family members, too. In some ways, it wouldn’t be all that unlike The Prime Effect at CU. And yet, this situation is markedly different than Boulder four years ago. The Buffs, at the time, needed an identity besides irrelevance and bad football. The Nuggets don’t.

On the court, James is an alpha who can play with anybody. If you squint hard enough, you can even see LeBron doing for the Nuggets next year what Aaron Gordon, whose health has become a daily concern, does now. Although so could Watson, at a price close to or less than James’ likely asking price.

The genius in building this Nuggets core was not just in finding Jokic and grooming him into a generational big man. It was also in finding pieces that accented Joker’s ridiculous, prodigious strengths (hands, feet, vision, touch, IQ, passing, shooting, ball-handling, strength, physicality, dexterity, anticipation, etc., etc.) while simultaneously lessening the impact of his few on-court weaknesses (rim protection, straight-line speed).

Jokic could find the open man in the middle of a crowded supermarket, so you surround him with excellent spot-up shooters (Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Gordon, etc., etc.) and let him pick from several poisons. He can hit an earwig in stride from 80 yards away, so you give him superlative sprinters and finishers on runouts (Also Gordon, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Bruce Brown, etc., etc.). He’ll contest shots, but probably won’t swat many into the second row — so you pair him with defenders who can cut off the supply chain of drivers at the head (Also AG, also Watson, also Braun, also Brown, etc., etc.).

Even at age 41, King James is still an elite scoring machine (20.7 points per game as of Wednesday). That long-distance shooting, though, has been slipping — James’ 41% conversion rate on 3-pointers in ’23-24 dropped to 37.6% last season and was at 31.4% as of Wednesday, a dip of 10% over about three years.

Watson, meanwhile, is trending in the exact opposite direction on his treys. Two seasons ago? 29.6%. A year ago? 35.3%. This season, before Wednesday? 41.5%.

And then there’s the defense. , James went into Wednesday evening with a Defensive Rating (DR) of 116 opponent points allowed per 100 possessions (lower is better), and that number has been trending the wrong way, too. Last season, LeBron’s DR was 114, the same as the season before that. In ’22-23, that DR was 113. In ’21-22, it was 111. Career blocks per 100 possessions: 1.0 — 0.9 this season, 0.8 two years prior.

While Watson’s DR, per Basketball-Reference, Even in a “down” defensive year for P-Swat, he was blocking 1.9 shots per 100 possessions this season before the midweek Utah trip, after 2.7 stuffs per 100 possessions in ’24-25 and 2.9 per 100 in ’23-24.

“Peyton Watson has gotten so much better,” Green continued. “He clearly has a high-level processor. When you have a high-level processor in this league, it’s an advantage. It’s very understated, but a very big advantage.”

Why give that one up so soon? When it comes to the question of an old King or a young Watson for the Nuggets next season,

Is it fair to ask him to manage frustration in its absence?

Heck no. The Nuggets don’t need Jokic to play the heavy in the locker room.

But yes, somebody must provide bad cop energy, even if broadly defined, for the Nuggets to return to the NBA Finals.

This topic surfaced when an interview with Jokic dropped recently on the team’s YouTube page. about his process on learning to lead. His answer was refreshingly honest.

“I think a leader is someone who, sometimes, needs to be a bad guy, and I think that’s something I cannot be,” Jokic said. “When I get over that border– or take that next step — and stop worrying about whether they’re going to like me, sometimes you need to be the bad guy.”

The Nuggets cannot overlook this element as they creep into the postseason, attempting to secure the third or fourth seed. They cannot dismiss this impact.

And of course, they cannot mess with Jokic. He already carries too much burden to ask him to navigate another responsibility that is not natural for him.

Don’t take this out of context. Jokic is not a follower.

He provides leadership through tactical suggestions. Watch him in timeouts. He imparts strategy on offensive sets, defensive switches, and sometimes even tells teammates what inbounds plays opponents are running.

Everyday Jokic wears a Nuggets uniform, president Josh Kroenke and co-general managers Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace should send him texts on how much they value his contributions.

“Being the bad cop doesn’t mean you have to do it on camera. Some people do things in public make it look a certain way in public and it doesn’t do anything to help your team,” coach David Adelman said Wednesday night. “Saying something to your team or your teammates, that is out of respect. And that is very much happening with our team.”

Even as Adelman believes Jokic is “doing a good job” with strong leadership, one thing is missing for Jokic to become a top-10 player of all time. A second championship. All on that list have it.

Jokic elbowed into the pantheon of greatness with three MVPs, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and Shaquille O’Neal among the top centers to ever roam the earth. With a fourth — the one swiped from him by Joel Embiid because of voter fatigue — he would already be in the top 10 without another ring.

Now, there is no guarantee he will win a title or the top individual trophy again.

No player 30 years or older has won MVP since Steve Nash in 2006. Jokic turned 31 on Feb. 19. He will likely finish fourth in the MVP balloting this season behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Luca Doncic, his first time outside the top three since the 2019-20 season.

A championship remains realistic now that the Nuggets are healthy and their schedule is no longer a sequel to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

To hear apologists tell it, Denver has had the toughest travel since the 1899 Sewanne Tigers, who won five college football games in six days on the road, including walking several miles to a stadium after an opponent’s fans greased the railroad tracks so their train could not stop.

My sarcasm was deliberate, and a reminder of why the Nuggets need a bad cop. The playoffs are no time for excuses.

My nominations, in order, are Aaron Gordon, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Braun.

This isn’t a role that requires dealing with chaos or moodiness — Russell Westbrook is no longer on the team, remember? It centers on reluctance. As in the unwillingness to sell out defensively on a consistent basis.

It is the only thing preventing the Nuggets from making a deep playoff run. They are the NBA’s best offensive club, and are getting better with Peyton Watson’s return and rotations taking shape.

The postseason, however, is different. Scoring shrinks from role players in road games.

So while Jokic and Jamal Murray are as reliable as an ol’ pickup truck, they need the defense to become just as predictable.

Knowing that they can get stops when it matters most is more important than clutch shots.

Trying to win 16 games with an offensive-tilt is misguided, mirroring how MLB teams reliant on home runs get knocked out by good pitching every October.

We have seen Gordon’s scowl, his screws turn slightly lefty loosey on the threads. He does not run from confrontation, as seen Tuesday when he returned a hard pick with a more brutal screen, and mockingly clapped at the refs when Jokic drew a T.

Can he direct that same energy into a huddle if the Nuggets start out flat? Of course.

Hardaway brings a resume that demands respect. Though only in his first season as a Nugget, he has no problem getting to the point. Could he get embers glowing? Absolutely.

It is in Braun’s makeup to lead. He plays with intensity and is not afraid to talk trash. Talking truth to teammates is harder given his complementary role and age, but he knows the game so well that he should pick his spots to speak up.

I know, you think it should come from coach David Adelman? Well, Mike Malone tried that last April, and you saw how that worked out.

“There has been a lot of emotion in film sessions with multiple guys,” Adelman said.

The best teams are player-led. Where guys self-police, holding each other accountable. We saw this group do that a year ago, coming together after Malone was fired.

They need something better, more forceful. They need strong voices to be candid when standards are not being met, most notably with defensive effort.

Adelman does not coddle players. He tells them the truth, and every player I have talked to appreciates that from him, including Jokic.

But Adelman is not going to call rage timeouts. Or spew lava from the sideline or behind a microphone. He is more mad scientist than mad anything else (though he will get blamed if this team falls short).

“I probably seem pretty calm but I am kind of psychotic sometimes,” Adelman said.

Still, this is a player thing.

The Nuggets feed off Jokic’s toughness and brilliance, which is what made Tuesday’s win encouraging.

Tired of the nipping Chihuahuas’ defense against him, Jokic let the official have it early on, getting a technical. It was clearly intentional to send a message. Jokic let loose, then became refocused, which has not always been the case, as the officials sometimes stay in his head for far too long.

Again, this is where an edge from a leader — or a collective — comes into play.

Sometimes, even Jokic needs to be told to get over it. He accepts constructive criticism from my observation. And we know there will be nights this postseason when a voice is required to turn on the defense’s pilot light.

If the Nuggets want to play for another championship, they need a player — or players — to provide fire in uncomfortable moments. Adelman believes his group can handle it. Hope he is right.

Because the Nuggets need a bad cop to complement Jokic’s great play.

Sean Keeler: The eyes say P-Wat. The Nuggets are a different team when Watson and Aaron Gordon are healthy and rolling together. The Nuggets were a completely different team Sunday once Watson entered the game, outscoring Portland 97-81 after No. 8 came off the bench. Watson can rim-protect with the first unit (which needs it) and create his own shot with the second unit (which needs that, too). He’s the skeleton key that unlocks whatever coach David Adelman wants to do — Peyton can play with big lineups, small lineups, “shooting” lineups, “defensive” lineups, you name it. And yet … the stats say Gabe. Since Jan. 1, the Avs are 7-2 when he plays. They’re 9-9-3 when he doesn’t. Since New Year’s Day, the Nuggets are 11-9 without Watson andÌý10-9Ìýwith him.Ìý±õ²Ô³Ù±ð°ù±ð²õ³Ù¾±²Ô²µ.

Renck: The easy answer is Landeskog, given Colorado’s 37-4-7 record when he plays this season. So, of course, I will go with Watson. As with the aforementioned hamstrings, this is a dangerous stretch of reasoning. But hear me out. Sunday was the first time Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson played together since Jan. 22. And there is no denying how strong Denver looks with its opening night rotation healthy. Watson gives them burst and the ability to create space and shots off the dribble. He can also protect the rim and provide perimeter defense. This is the deepest team the Nuggets have had with Nikola Jokic. Coach David Adelman has 10 games to make the pieces fit, even with Watson on a minutes restriction and Gordon not expected to play in the back-to-back games this week. Find the right mix, and Watson can become the playoff X-factor to back up his Sunday boast, when he blurted, “I think when we are healthy, nobody in the league can beat us.”

Keeler:  And I hope he’s right. But the facts remain: Watson (so far) is a career 36.4% shooter in the postseason, 33.3% from beyond the arc. What’s he going to look like once good defenses, defenses that are trying, actually key on him and put him higher in the scouting report? My fear is the same as the Russell Westbrook fear a year ago — that teams are going to dare Watson to shoot, and he might end up shooting Denver out of a game. Or a series. And on that note, I hope to holy heck I’m wrong.

Renck: The Avs are better equipped to win another championship. The issue is the path. Even with Landeskog back, there is no guarantee they can outlast the Dallas Stars in a cage match. The Nuggets’ problem is more macro. They are capable of beating anyone in the Western Conference, but doing it 16 times remains thorny given their players’ familiarity with the trainer’s table. If the Nuggets find their rhythm, the missed games should work to their advantage, with a fresher Jokic — a good thing with the incredible shrinking role of Jonas Valanciunas — Gordon and Watson.

Keeler: Big Val is a “matchup” player, and I’m not convinced he matches up all that great with the Thunder or Spurs right now. But he’s serving his function — Jokic’s on a pace to record his lowest minutes per game in two seasons (34.8), while still maintaining MVP-level production. Landeskog has yet to beat Dallas in a Stanley Cup series over his storied career, that’s true. Painful, but true. Lest we forget, though, he also sat out Games 1 and 2 of that teams-too-good-to-play-this-early series between the Avs and Stars spring. If you want to make a case that Colorado wins Game 2 in Dallas if Landy gets the minutes that went to Charlie Coyle (zero points, minus-3 in 16:19) or Miles Wood (zero points, minus-3 in 12:42), instead? Can’t argue with that. Won’t argue with that.

The Nuggets have lacked an edge lately, as the dog days of the regular season have threatened to derail their playoff seeding. With a barrage of 3-pointers and an eagerness to play to the crowd, Hardaway tried to provide that edge Friday night. His heat check and Denver’s switchable bench lineup galvanized a 121-115 comeback win over the Raptors.

Toronto led by as many as 11 points late in the third quarter and by nine entering the fourth, as Nikola Jokic sat for a rest. The Nuggets went small, like they did in the first half, with Spencer Jones at center. Jamal Murray and Cam Johnson staggered with the unit. Bruce Brown started the run with a 3-pointer, and Denver was off and running. Hardaway scored nine of his 23 points in the final frame, including the go-ahead triple with 5:38 late that prompted the timeout from Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic.

Denver’s 33-year-old shooting guard reveled in the moment, mean-mugging his way to the huddle.

Murray led the Nuggets (43-28) with 31 points on 18 shots. Jokic went for 22 points, eight boards and nine assists. He scored the eventual game-winner with 44 seconds left, a contested 10-footer in the lane. Hardaway and Brown combined for 35 points off the bench on 9 for 13 outside shooting.

Nuggets coach David Adelman stuck to mostly an eight-man rotation for Denver’s third game in four nights. Tyus Jones had a three-minute stint sprinkled in. Backup center Jonas Valanciunas didn’t play.

The Nuggets desperately needed the win coming off a sour loss Wednesday in Memphis. They looked ready to bounce back early, hanging around when shots weren’t falling. Toronto, a team firmly in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, excels in transition and in the paint but struggles with perimeter shooting. Denver did a solid job packing it in early to prevent Scottie Barnes and company from getting downhill easily.

But with a 13-for-15 start to the second half, Toronto surged to an 83-72 edge. The Nuggets had limited their visitors to 18 points in the paint en route to a four-point halftime lead. Now they suddenly looked lethargic. Turnovers plagued them. Hustle plays were an inconvenience. The Raptors were dictating the tempo.

Adelman’s small-ball bench lineup had to act as a catalyst for the second time in as many weeks. Jones played center nine days earlier to lead a fourth-quarter comeback charge in San Antonio.

Jokic was coming off a 10-turnover game in Memphis that matched his career-high and was indicative of his recent trend of sloppiness. Before he injured his knee and missed a month, he had eight games in the first 32 of the season with five or more turnovers committed. Since returning from that injury, he has 11 such games out of 22.

His turnover rate post-injury is up 3% from how he started the season, when he was playing some of the cleanest basketball of his career from the elbows. The mistakes have also increased routinely when Aaron Gordon is out — as he was Wednesday — removing Denver’s best short-corner threat from the floor-spacing map.

“I would say the main theme of those (high-turnover) games is when the other guys have to take more responsibility to bring the ball up,” Adelman said. “Teams that put a small forward … on a center, that doesn’t allow Nikola to bring the ball up the floor. I think there were a lot of times we put him in compromised situations (in Memphis). … The Aaron effect is real in isolations and post-ups just because if you bring a body, he basically absorbs your rotation. … Those are the two themes I’ve noticed.

“They’re his mistakes, no question. He has to cut those down. He’s gonna turn it over because of his usage rate. But the other guys, too, have to take it on themselves and get the ball up the floor, get us organized as well. And it’s not always gonna be perfect. There’s not always gonna be Jamal Murray on the floor. Sometimes they take him away too. So it’s a team issue. And obviously, he’s the one who gets the statistics.”

Barnes took on Jokic and fronted him aggressively, agitating him early in the game, but the three-time MVP managed to fight through it and limit his turnovers to two this time. The Nuggets committed just 10 as a team.

On paper and according to conventional wisdom, it should be one of their greatest strengths. They’re a veteran team with championship experience, years of continuity, statistical evidence of elite situational performance in past seasons and, most crucially, a roster tailored to walk down their opponents when the game decelerates into a test of wills and half-court execution. Not unlike how their Ball Arena neighbors are fully armed with the firepower and chemistry to dominate at a man advantage.

So while the Avs continue to reckon with the mysteries behind their NHL-worst scoring rate on the power play, it similarly defies logic that Nikola Jokic and company continue to cough up wins in the pivotal moments. As a team, the Nuggets ranked 26th in clutch time net rating as they tipped off against the Celtics on Wednesday, 9.9 points in the red. With their three-time MVP on the court, the number was more than twice as gnarly at minus-19.3.

Jokic admitted last Sunday that he was concerned by the increasingly puzzling trend. With two days off to regroup (and face a bit of scrutiny) after a wayward road trip, first-year coach David Adelman weighed in, acknowledging that he’s trying to “add some wrinkles” to help Jokic and Jamal Murray while Aaron Gordon isn’t available in the dunker spot and on the perimeter.

“We’re trying to maintain who we are, playing the two-man game without the things that matter behind it,” Adelman said. “Like, if we play a two-man game with Aaron Gordon, it’s a very different rotation (in help defense) for teams. So you don’t want to scrap something that you know you’re gonna do (in the playoffs), and you’re pre-supposing that those guys are gonna be out there. … We have to figure out a way to finish games when teams are full-rotating to (Jokic and Murray). Sometimes three guys, sometimes four. So we talked about that.”

Worse in clutch time with Nikola Jokic?

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Denver’s overall clutch sample is how it breaks down with and without Jokic. The Nuggets relied on their knack for eking out wins while he was out for a month with a knee injury. They went 8-2 in games involving “clutch time,” defined as any situation when the margin is within five points in the last five minutes. In that same stretch, they went 2-4 in “non-clutch” games. The formula for survival was simple: Win by a little, lose by a lot.

It’s been the exact opposite with Jokic healthy — convincing wins but an overall record suppressed by a poor fourth-quarter execution. The Nuggets are 20-3 in non-clutch games when Jokic plays, and one of those losses was the night he hyperextended his knee during a deadlocked game in Miami. Essentially, Denver has only two uncompetitive losses all season when its star player is on the court.

The glass-half-full viewpoint is that 20-3 is a more accurate indicator of how good the team actually is than its clutch results. After all, clutch time sample sizes are inherently small. Denver has played 136 total clutch minutes this season, the equivalent of 2.83 NBA games.

Still, that small sample size is tangibly impacting the Nuggets’ sense of security in the Western Conference playoff race. In Jokic’s first 10 games back from the injury, they went 1-5 in clutch games, bringing them to 6-13 on the season when he plays.

“I look at the clutch stuff and I go, ‘Well it’s crazy we were so clutch when it was a bunch of guys that weren’t in the rotation to start the season,'” Adelman said. “So things work both ways. And clutch time can just be defense sometimes.”

That gets at the crux of the problem. Denver’s defensive rating in general since Jokic returned has been almost exactly the same as it was in the 16 games without him (115.7 vs. 115.8). But in clutch time, the Nuggets’ ability to protect their paint has deteriorated. They’ve lacked in dribble containment, rim protection and discipline on their help rotations behind the pick-and-roll. During the 1-5 clutch slump, they’re holding opponents to 33.3% from 3-point range. But they’re allowing 68.8 paint points per 100 possessions defended, ranking third-worst in the league. That’s up from 36.2 per 100 possessions when they had their 8-2 clutch surge without Jokic.

“I’ve been more distressed about the four-minute mark on than the last two minutes. I think we’ve had so many screw-ups defensively,” Adelman said. “Our turnovers always keep teams in games. … It’s cost us some games throughout the season.”

The Nuggets worked on situational defensive drills when they held a formal practice on Tuesday, trying to tighten the screws on their scheme and communication. But they also know that their floor as a defensive team will elevate when they get Gordon and Peyton Watson back from hamstring injuries.

While they wait for that, Jokic’s anxiety about shot creation in the clutch is on Adelman’s mind as well. It’s a much less dramatic problem, but a 112.5 offensive rating in clutch time since Jokic returned is also a notable downtick from Denver’s historic scoring efficiency. And if Jokic senses that something is wrong offensively, his feel for the game is usually trustworthy enough to listen.

“They’re just full-on blitzing Jamal and bringing a third defender over early to Nikola — which means that we have to have outlets behind that, and the guys that are outlets behind it have to understand that now it’s them, and they have to make a play,” Adelman said. “If those two guys bring three or four (defenders) to them, it’s your turn to win the game. … Yes, the highlights come from your star players. That’s what they show on SportsCenter at night. But a lot of those games are won by third and fourth guys in the rotation making a huge shot.”

Adelman referenced Denver’s first-round playoff series last season, when the Clippers “were the first team that really said, ‘We’ll just flat-out leave people.'” The Nuggets relied on clutch shot-making from Gordon and Russell Westbrook to narrowly advance in seven games.

“It wasn’t Jamal and Nikola,” Adelman said. “So if teams are gonna demand that of us, then our guys have to understand that I have full confidence in any of these guys to take an open shot, and we’ll live with an open shot nightly. The flip side of that is we can’t turn the ball over. Jamal and Nikola have to be cleaner at the end of the game, and I think with that, (what) will follow is wide-open shots for other people.”

Lonzo Ball, G

Ball did not turn out to be the cost-effective Ty Jerome replacement the Cavaliers were hoping for last offseason. Salary-dumped to Utah and waived by the Jazz last week, he’s already been one of the buzziest names on the market. In theory, his ball-handling and perimeter defense could fill needs for Denver if he’s in vintage form. In reality, even those strengths could be fading, based on his bitter cup of coffee in Cleveland, and he’s not going to help the Nuggets’ spacing when he’s off the ball. His medical history is also widely considered a red flag. He and Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog are the only two active players in their respective leagues who’ve undergone a knee cartilage transplant — a rare procedure that doctors have described as a last-ditch attempt to save both players’ careers.

Tyus Jones, G

If the Nuggets want someone who at least gives them a chance to improve on defense, Jones is not that guy. But if ball-handling and play-making are priorities, he is one of the best assist-to-turnover guards of the last few years (123 to 14 this season). He moved around from Orlando to Charlotte to Dallas last week, and he’s been speculated to be a buyout candidate due to the fact that he was salary-dumped twice before the deadline. There’s still a chance he ends up playing out the season as the Mavericks’ starting point guard instead, though.

D’Angelo Russell

The Nuggets certainly know what Russell isn’t. They’ve seen him struggle dramatically at both ends of the floor in a playoff setting. They’ve exploited it. Russell seems to be in decline as he nears his 30th birthday this month, but look, the buyout market is about taking fliers on flawed players. Russell has been an All-Star in his career. He’s an experienced option for point guard depth. It’s just hard to trust that he can stay on the floor in Denver after he couldn’t in Dallas, where he shot 40.5% from the field and 29.5% from three in 26 games this season. He’s expected to be waived or bought out after being traded to Washington. Cole Anthony could be another wild card option for the backcourt if and when he’s released by Phoenix.

Chris Paul, G

Paul announced his retirement on Friday after opting not to join the Raptors after the Clippers finally moved him at the deadline. But would the opportunity to claim the one thing missing from his stellar resume — an NBA title — make him reconsider? The Nuggets have already experimented with an aging future Hall of Famer who has strong opinions and an intense leadership style at their backup point guard position. (Russell Westbrook, by the way, could be another buyout candidate in Sacramento.) Perhaps their new front office is unlikely to return to that playbook, but this list can’t be completed without mentioning Paul. Other veteran guards can already be crossed off; Jevon Carter has already signed with Orlando, and Mike Conley is set to reunite with Denver’s rival Timberwolves immediately after they waived him.

Khris Middleton, F

Middleton was the matching salary in the unexpected quasi-blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to Washington. If the Mavericks buy out Middleton’s $33 million expiring contract soon, the Nuggets are one of 27 teams that would be allowed to sign him. (Cleveland, Golden State and New York are prohibited by payrolls that exceed the first tax apron.) Obviously, the Milwaukee legend is not what he once was. But the idea of another ball-handling forward who can get his own shot in a controlled bench role might be appealing to the Nuggets. Wherever the 34-year-old lands, everybody wants to see him on a contender again.

Kyle Anderson, F

Another veteran forward option that sounds decent on paper, between his ball-handling and play-making chops, his IQ and his reputation for being able to guard every frontcourt position. And another player who might be in decline — it’s hard to tell because the Jazz understandably prioritized its youth movement over him this season. Utah recently traded “Slow Mo” to Memphis, where he’s speculated to become a buyout candidate.

Chris Boucher, F

Boucher barely played in Boston and became a salary cap casualty last week, traded to Utah to help the Celtics duck the luxury tax. He’s been linked to Denver during past free agency cycles and trade deadlines. He’s already been waived by Utah, but does he make as much as he used to for the Nuggets? In the past, he’s been able to knock down open 3s off the catch and protect the rim on defense. He doesn’t have much of a ball-in-hand skillset, though, and if the Nuggets are going to sacrifice that for someone with size, they’d probably rather find a younger, more athletic option.

Haywood Highsmith, F

Highsmith hasn’t played at all this season while struggling with the aftermath of an August 2025 meniscus surgery. The Nets waived him last week, leaving the 29-year-old wing looking for someone willing to take a flier on his health. He’s probably one of the best wing defenders available on the buyout market, which means the Lakers will probably be the first team to dial his number. Spencer Jones is already Denver’s 3-and-D diamond in the rough, but it never hurts to have too many of that type of player.

Kevin Love, F

Highsmith and Love were both on the Heat team that lost to Denver in the 2023 NBA Finals. It’s unclear how much Love has left in the tank — he’s been hanging out on the Jazz’s bench all season, mentoring their young — but if he gets waived and goes searching for another ring, Denver could be a natural destination. He and Nuggets coach David Adelman have crossed paths multiple times over the years. They worked together in Minnesota in the early 2010s when they were both new to the NBA, and they were on opposite sidelines during an Oregon high school state championship game in 2005 (Love as a burgeoning prospect, Adelman as an assistant coach).

Georges Niang, F

Niang was traded four times in the last calendar year, going from Cleveland to Atlanta to Boston to Utah to Memphis, where he was finally waived. He’s been a legit role player on good teams in his career, but his ability to contribute for the next two to four months is up in the air. Like Highsmith, Niang hasn’t played this season, in his case because of a foot injury.

He could only watch in awe as to another realm. Johnson was Shamet’s teammate back then, not Gordon’s. It was the last year of his rookie-scale contract with Phoenix, and he was sidelined by a right meniscus injury but still traveling with the team. “I had knee surgery early November,” Johnson recalls, “so I was working my way back. I was just rehabbing at the time. But I was here.”

Oh, he was here. Not a soul in attendance at Ball Arena that night will forget it. With 27 seconds remaining in overtime and the Nuggets protecting a 124-123 lead, Gordon refused to slow the ball down and make Phoenix decide whether to foul. He ran a one-man fast break instead, catapulting himself over Shamet for the poster of all posters, the greatest dunk of a great dunker’s career, a proper Christmas baptism.

What does Johnson remember from his vantage point on the visiting bench?

“OK, well I remember Landry Shamet was having one heck of a game,” he told The Denver Post on Monday. “And Aaron put a swift end to that. And I’m over there yelling, ‘Charge! Charge! Charge!’ But I knew (it wasn’t). I knew. That was a nasty way to end the game. … Insane.”

Now a Nugget, Johnson hoped to replace that Christmas memory with new ones this year in the same building — to actually play on the holiday. Instead, in a cruel twist of fate, he went down holding the same knee Tuesday during Denver’s final game before Christmas.

The results of an MRI on Wednesday revealed a best-case scenario: no structural damage, no torn ligaments. Just a bone bruise, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post.

An estimated return timeline has not been announced by the team yet. But in all likelihood, the bruised knee will still force Johnson to miss games. Injuries, once again, are the story as the Nuggets (21-8) prepare to host the Timberwolves on Christmas (8:30 p.m. MT, ABC/ESPN) in the finale of a five-game NBA slate.

Two starters have already been sidelined all month in Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, both of whom could return during the team’s seven-game road trip after the holiday. Johnson has been a major factor in holding down the fort. He turned a corner in mid-November after a slow start to the season. He’s shooting 52.3% from the 3-point line in his last 17 games.

In the locker room after a win over Utah on Monday, he was handed a proverbially ugly Christmas sweater depicting cartoon versions of him and Braun. He suggested that he might wear it to Ball Arena on Thursday as his pregame tunnel outfit. He was feeling the holiday spirit. ‘Twas the season, until he limped off the court in Dallas.

Now, Tim Hardaway Jr. seems likely to slot into Denver’s starting lineup as a small forward, joining Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones as the injury replacements.

“In my household, (Christmas was) wake up, gift exchange, eat breakfast, go to grandma’s house, and basketball games all day,” Johnson said Monday. “All day, watching the NBA. So to actually be that, playing out there, knowing you’re playing for people that have those same traditions is pretty special and definitely something I cherish.”

His opinion is shared by a majority of NBA players and coaches, despite the obvious side-effect being that Christmas turns into a work day for top teams. This is the fourth consecutive year Denver has been deemed important enough by the league to play on the holiday, and the third time in those four years that Ball Arena will host.

“I think it’s really cool,” first-year coach David Adelman said. “It’s kind of like when I was growing up. My father was (coaching) Sacramento, and Sacramento was so out of sight, out of mind for so many years. Like, nobody knew what was going on with the Kings. Then all of a sudden, they were on every Christmas against the Lakers, the Mavs. It’s a sign of respect. And it’s a sign of respect to the things we’ve accomplished over the years.”

The Nuggets are already ahead 2-0 on Minnesota in the season series. Both wins were at Target Center. This will be the Timberwolves’ first visit to Denver since a double-overtime classic in April, when Nikola Jokic recorded the first 60-point triple-double in league history in a loss. His monumental stat line went to waste when Russell Westbrook fouled Minnesota’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker on a corner jump shot at the buzzer.

The Nuggets have still lost five of their last six home games to Minnesota, dating back to the start of their 2024 second-round playoff series.

Now they’ll be tasked with reversing that trend despite limited reinforcements for Jokic and Jamal Murray.

“It’s always great to play on Christmas Day,” Nuggets guard Bruce Brown said. “Christmas shoes, the old-school throwback jerseys that you think about. I mean, the whole world will be watching.”

Bucket-getting big men

Nikola Jokic slowly worked his way out to the perimeter early. He started by spinning around defenders for a pair of smooth buckets in the post. Then he tested his touch with a “Sombor Shuffle” fade-away, about 15 feet deep. Then he fired his first shot from the 3-point line, also pure.

He was incapable of missing. But soon enough, it became clear that Jokic wouldn’t need to extend his range too much to bludgeon Sacramento with his scoring. His only other 3-point attempt was a 2-for-1 possession at the end of the first half, when he was intentionally rushing a shot to ensure Denver would get another possession. (He made it.) The Nuggets found their superstar in the pocket, and he went for 36 points on 14 of 16 shooting, eventually tacking on 12 rebounds and eight of the team’s 35 assists.

The real magic trick of Denver’s performance was that it looked as if Jokic never left. His backup did a mighty impressive imitation, scoring 15 points without missing from the field. Against the team that traded him to Denver, Jonas Valanciunas showed off his silky touch on the sorts of interior jumpers and hook shots that are commonplace for Jokic.

Domantas Sabonis was out for the Kings, so the Nuggets’ centers compensated by treating Sacramento to a big man scoring clinic. They combined to make 21 of 23 shots for 38% of Denver’s points.

Pickett in rotation, Nnaji out

Sacramento was the site of a season-affirming performance from Jalen Pickett eight months ago. It was David Adelman’s first game as interim head coach, April 9, the day after Stan and Josh Kroenke had rolled the dice and fired Michael Malone and Calvin Booth in one fell swoop. The Nuggets were in danger of missing the playoffs with three games to go, but they came through amid the chaos with a 124-116 win.

Pickett was an unlikely hero with 18 efficient points and four assists.

Playing time has always been hard to come by for the reserve point guard. But he provided solid minutes in Sacramento again Thursday, filling out David Adelman’s nine-man rotation with six points, five rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

It was a modest but steady showing, including one nice read in which he slowed down and turned his back to the basket in transition, waiting for Bruce Brown to catch up to the play. As he did, Pickett flicked a semi-no-look pass to him in stride for a layup.

The Nuggets were a plus-10 with Pickett on the floor. He has replaced power forward Zeke Nnaji as that ninth man in two consecutive games, winning his minutes both nights. Nnaji had occupied those minutes for several games since Aaron Gordon’s hamstring injury.

Pour one out for Russ

In his 18th season, Russell Westbrook is playing his heart out for an organization that probably doesn’t deserve that effort level. He certainly had some extra motivation when facing the Nuggets this season after they spurned him in free agency, but he also simply doesn’t know any other way to play.

He was Sacramento’s leading scorer in three of four head-to-head matchups against Denver over the last two months, capped off by a 17-point game Thursday. He’s still finding ways to be productive after he nearly faded into obsolescence last offseason. He’s still averaging more than seven rebounds and seven assists. He’s still increasing his efficiency as a 3-point shooter despite his eternal reputation as a player without range. It would be a shame if he finished this season in Sacramento instead of on a contending roster.