Who are these guys?! Nuggets play one of their best games of the season without Jokic

Who saw this one coming?

Los Angeles Clippers v Denver Nuggets | Matthew Stockman/GettyImages

Once Nikola Jokic was ruled out for Wednesday night’s game with an illness, expectations for the Nuggets were pretty low. They were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and facing a feisty and well-rested Clippers team without Jokic and Aaron Gordon.

They played well, but exerted a lot of energy and ultimately lost to the reigning champion Boston Celtics on Tuesday night. Once the Joker was ruled out for Wednesday as well, it felt like the air was taken out of a balloon.

Instead, things went the other way. Denver rallied without the MVP of the league and put forth an outstanding two-way effort, destroying the Clippers, 126-103. Jokic missed a stretch of games earlier in the season for the birth of his son and the Nuggets looked horrible without him, but this two-game absence has been a completely different story.

Nuggets looked balanced and deep minus Jokic

Perhaps some of it is the element of surprise, but without Jokic on the floor, the Celtics and Clippers haven’t known what to expect from Denver. What they’ve gotten is a little bit of everything. The Nuggets had an incredibly diverse offense on Wednesday night with six different players scoring between 12-21 points.

They scored 56 points in the paint, 29 fast break points, 15 second-chance points, and shot a scorching 17-35 from three-point range. Everyone seemed to be playing free and loose, without pressure or expectations. They were playing like they had nothing to lose and it led to an amazing performance.

Not to be outdone by the offense, the defense was spectacular as well. The Nuggets set a new season best, holding the Clippers to just 19 points in the first quarter and they didn’t look back from there, limiting LA to just 38% shooting from the floor and 29% from three with a mere 24 points in the paint.

Learning to win without Jokic an invaluable experience

Despite this great showing, even the hottest of takers wouldn’t try to suggest the Nuggets are better off without the Joker or anything like that. But even just for a small period of time, it’s huge to see the team playing so well while Jokic is out.

Games and even minutes without him have been a disaster for years and this season the difference when Big Honey is on and off the court has been starker than ever. Hopefully, they’ll never need to play without the MVP for long – and if they do, they’re probably screwed anyway – but they will need to survive minutes with him off the floor in big moments.

These two games don’t exactly mean that the Nuggets have suddenly figured out how to do that, but it’s a massive step in the right direction and reason for optimism. With any hope, Michael Malone and these players have found something over the last couple of nights.

Inevitably, Jokic will have to miss regular season games here and there, and with how congested the Western Conference standings are, having a chance to win those games could end up making all the difference in the world for the Nuggets.