Basketball, Nba: stellar Jokic, in Denver game 1 against the Lakers

NEW YORK – Nikola Jokic better than Wilt Chamberlain in ’67 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in ’70: second time in the triple double in the playoffs with at least 30 points and 20 rebounds. The other two stopped at one. This business of the big bottles of soda Jokic drank over and over again doesn’t do it justice. At soda, we mean: because in the end it seems to have done him good.

The obese former basketball player has shown that he has never been ruined in his weaknesses, even if in the commercial breaks American TV insists on broadcasting photos of Niko as an overweight child, as if to say: now look where he is. In reality, nothing in his game is slow, excessive, nothing is bubbles. Just basketball, precision, vision, generosity. Drawing on his entire repertoire, in the first game of the conference finals in the west, Jokic led Denver up 1-0, with an undisputed victory by 47 minutes, and ended in thrills when at 121-124 LeBron James had the equalizer in his hands. His three-point shot landed on the rim. Denver finished the score 132 to 126. And Jokic with his personal best as an all-rounder with 34 points, 21 rebounds, 14 assists, 2 blocks, followed by Jamal Murray (31 points) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (21).

The finale will serve to keep the tension high in this challenge which, on paper, sees Denver (who dominated in the west) too much the favorite. At the end of the third quarter, the hosts closed ahead by 14 (106-92) and with a basket from ten meters by Jokic who found the retina despite having his hand in the face of Anthony Davis.

Three years ago, in the conference final played in the Disneyland bubble, in Florida, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the Lakers won, who then won the title against Miami. LeBron and Davis are still here, a monument to versatility, because those two teams were very different from these, but Jokic, LeBron and Davis have always remained head and shoulders above the others. Denver, compared to 2020, appears much more mature, solid in defense and quick in transitions. And then he has the best player in the league, The Joker, whose game was a slow crushing of his opponents: after seven minutes and 30 seconds of play he already had 11 rebounds and a block on Davis (zero rebounds up to that point, he will finish with 10 and 40 points).

At halftime, with Denver leading 72-54, Jokic had 19 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists, numbers not seen in at least twenty-five years. He alone had more rebounds than all the Lakers. And Denver had twenty-three more than their opponents. Bruce Brown, sixth man, had finished with 14 points, almost as many as those made by the Los Angeles benches (15 points). Even in the second half, the Serbian giant was the center of every action, the reference for every teammate, but also the area director who distributed balls throughout the arc, repeatedly freeing the others to shoot.

There is never arrogance, or selfishness, in his game. But he is inexorable in the wide three-point parable, in the four-meter conclusion, a killer, despite the red nose and that constant shaking of the head, as if the star role bothered him. At one point he seemed too much for the opponents. And for long stretches Denver too. But in the end this centrality of the Serbian ended up easing the nerves and Davis and LeBron, supported by the baskets of Rui Hachimura (17 points) and Austin Reaves (23), led a silent comeback with a final 9-0 that brought Los Angeles at -3. The match ended on LeBron’s mistake. Jovic made the last three free throws. Murray caught the last ball. End. Thursday evening game 2, while tonight the series in the east between Boston and Miami will begin, and the challenge between Jayson Tatum and Jimmy Butler. The start when in Italy it will be 2.30 at night.