Nikola Jokic and the refs turned the game into a circus last night…
Giannis and Garland finally got back on the court, while things almost escalated in DC…
But we gotta start in Utah, where the Nuggets were struggling to deal with Keyonte George and the 2nd unit of the Jazz. Cody Williams jams it in transition but did you notice something weird? Yeah, Nikola Jokic casually hopped on poor Keyonte’s back and leaned on top of him with all of his 300 pounds of weight. I feel sorry for George honestly, this gotta be an offensive foul.
Anyway, he got up, shook off the dust and started trading buckets with Jamal Murray.
George was outscored by Jamal 17 to 14 in the 1st half, but the Jazz still had the slight lead.
That was a slick move by Key to beat the halftime buzzer!
However, Jamal was on a whole nother level in the 3rd quarter…
Oh there’s Jokic again, leaning on Harkless this time. Something's off here…
And it’s not Murray’s aim. Jamal went nuts, hitting ridiculous fadeaways from everywhere on the court. 18 of his 45 points came in the 3rd period, which got Denver up by 7 heading into the 4th.
The Nuggets were leading by 5 entering the clutch, but at the same time, Keyonte entered god mode. George took over the game, scoring 10 straight points to put the Jazz up by 1, unbelievable! The entire arena erupted and D-Wade was loving it!
But, as he did all game long, the Blue Arrow struck right back.
Focused solely on Key, the Nuggets forgot about Ace Bailey on the other end.
And when Jamal tried to continue his barrage, he got stripped by Harkless which leads us to this. George dunks in the open lane for the utmost pleasure of the crowd, but what followed got everyone angry at the refs because… Look at K. Love, Triple J and Markkanen holding their heads in disbelief after two consecutive fouls by Bailey on Jokic. Nikola sold both of them beautifully if I might add. 10 of his 22 points came from the free throw line in what turned into a flopping masterclass. Luckily, Keyonte was too deep in his bag to let down his team.
George was unstoppable in the clutch, scoring 15 of his 36 points in a span of 3 and a half minutes. But so was Murray as well… This was an elite guard battle, between the 1st time all-star and the leading candidate for the most improved player award. But it all fell in the shadow of the most egregious refereeing I’ve seen in a while…
This ref blew the whistle on what was a clean high five contact up there on the shot, AFTER he saw that Jamal missed it. Then, check this out… Jokic climbs on top of Filipowski as well, what is wrong with this guy!?? But, the refs call for a foul on Kyle… What? On the replay we clearly see the hook by Nikola who stumbles on his opponent. But why is Will Hardy not calling a challenge? Instead, the Jazz got hit with a delay of game violation which resulted in Jokic shooting another free throw… This is impossible… Still, Keyonte has a chance to take over the lead on the other end when… Finally a foul call for the Jazz who shot just 3 free throws opposed to Denver’s 21 in the 4th quarter, but no! Coach Adelman asks for a challenge, hoping to prevent Jokic’s 6th foul. After dozens of replays, we found the best angle, and no matter how you slice it, Nikola pushes George with the left hand enough to get him off balance and disrupt the layup… But to an unpleasant surprise to everyone in the building we hear this.
Are you kidding me??? We’ve seen Jokic when he believes he’s right, how he fights for challenges and calls, but now.. Even he was surprised to stay in the game..
So, with time winding down, the Jazz send him to the line in order to stop the clock.
Nikola stays calm and hits both free throws, putting his team up by 3 points.
Still, Utah has 6 more seconds to try and make things right…
Keyonte just misses the potential game tying 3 and the Nuggets escape Utah with the controversial win at the end… Man, the league must have something against them I don’t know…
#nba #nikolajokic #basketball
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