{"id":257001,"date":"2021-05-23T20:26:01","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T17:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/blazers-nikola-jokic-plan-worked-to-perfection\/"},"modified":"2021-05-23T20:26:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T17:26:01","slug":"blazers-nikola-jokic-plan-worked-to-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/blazers-nikola-jokic-plan-worked-to-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"#Blazers’ Nikola Jokic plan worked to perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Blazers’ Nikola Jokic plan worked to perfection<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Go ahead, Nikola. Score as much as you want. Light it up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s essentially what the Trail Blazers want the MVP candidate to do. That\u2019s their plan, allow Nikola Jokic to score, but not distribute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want him to score and not get his teammates involved,\u201d Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic told reporters after Portland took the opener of the first-round series<\/a> in Denver, 123-109. \u201cWhen he scores, I think we have a better chance. The fact he isn\u2019t involving all his teammates, he gets more dangerous when he\u2019s in and out. I think we feel more comfortable when he scores 30 or 40 and try to lock in on all the other guys to not have a big game<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It worked Saturday night. Jokic scored 34 points, but he had just one assist, a career low in the playoffs for the gifted big man. Obviously, the Trail Blazers would prefer if Jokic shot a low percentage. But they are doing their best to avoid double-teaming him to limit his playmaking abilities without fellow top scorers Jamal Murray and Will Barton available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re at their best, he\u2019s setting the table, he\u2019s dominating the game as a playmaker. As a scorer, he\u2019s having his way,\u201d Damian Lillard said. \u201cYou know a guy as good as he is, an MVP candidate \u2014 the MVP, in my opinion \u2014 you know he\u2019s going to play well. He\u2019s going to do what he does, but you have to try to take something away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NBA
Jusuf Nurkic of the Trail Blazers (l.) defends the Nuggets\u2019 Nikola Jokic during an NBA playoff game on May 22, 2021.<\/figcaption>
NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nuggets shot 1-for-10 on Jokic passes, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Michael Porter Jr. scored 25 points, but it wasn\u2019t enough to overcome the Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were playing me straight up,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cThey were going under pick-and-rolls. They didn\u2019t help much on my drives or post-ups. It was that kind of night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a good job. They made me work for it on every possession. They kind of took other guys out. I couldn\u2019t get other guys involved, maybe. Just because of the assists, I\u2019m saying that.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Blazers’ Nikola Jokic plan worked to perfection” Go ahead, Nikola. Score as much as you want. Light it up. That\u2019s essentially what the Trail Blazers want the MVP candidate to do. That\u2019s their plan, allow Nikola Jokic to score, but not distribute. \u201cWe want him to score and not get his teammates involved,\u201d Blazers center…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/NBA-playoffs-Trail-Blazers-Nuggets-Nikola-Jokic.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[106908,70380,70381,106181,105147,90735],"class_list":["post-257001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-23-21","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2021","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}