By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Golden State Warriors‘ No. 1 tactic in their defensive plan against the Denver Nuggets was pretty clear and obvious: Prevent Nikola Jokic from both scoring himself and involving his teammates.
It worked since Jokic finished with 25 points and six assists but shot 12-25 from the field and didn’t have much impact on his team’s offense.
“Really good,” Jokic said on how the Warriors defended against him. “They had Draymond [Green] who is … how many times defender of the league? Two or three times. He was in these situations. They had [Kevon] Looney, they had [Nemanja] Bjelica. They have the tools. I think I missed a couple of easy ones but I think they were defending me really well. I need to be better. I need to at least make the layups and the easy shots.”
Despite the Warriors’ intense and highly physical defense, Jokic didn’t manage to at least go to the line much and shot just two free throws.
“My friend, I think I’m going to get fined if I answer. I can’t,” Jokic mentioned when asked if he needs to take a different approach to make more trips to the line.
To be honest. I didn’t blame… . It’s part of the game,” he later added. “I think didn’t even talk about that to the refs much. It’s part of the game.
The job for the Nuggets isn’t easy, considering also the absences of Jamal Murray and Mike Porter Jr. Game 2 will take place Monday and Jokic wants to see his team put up some extra effort to take the series to Denver with at least one win in their bags.
“Try to be better,” the Serbian star said. “Hopefully, it will be a long series. We came to steal one if we can of course. The pressure is not on us. We are underdogs here. But we need to act like dogs. We need to fight and we cannot quit. We didn’t quit today, I’m just saying that, like a phrase.”