If you haven’t been paying attention to the Denver Nuggets, now is a good time to start. Led by their sweet-passing, young center Nikola Jokic, Denver has taken control of the eighth seed in the Western Conference for the time being.
If the Nuggets hold on, they would be set for a first round matchup against the Golden State Warriors. On Monday, we got a preview of that and boy, the Nuggets did not disappoint.
Behind a monstrous triple-double from Jokic (17 points, 21 rebounds, 12 assists), the Nuggets were able to blow out the Warriors in a monumental upset. Contributing to the final 132-110 score were an NBA-record-tying 24 made threes by Denver.
Maybe more impressive than the 24 made threes was that the Nuggets did it on only 40 attempts, good for 60 percent from behind the arc.
The Warriors didn’t seem too bothered by the game afterwards and you can’t really blame them. Giving up that many threes on so few attempts is not something that happens often and it’s not easy to beat a team literally on fire.
But regardless of the fortune involved in the win, this was a statement for the Nuggets and more notably for Nikola Jokic who may have arrived in the larger NBA fanbase with a huge game against the Warriors.
