Foul trouble strikes again for Nikola Jokic! He’s finding out that it’s kind of hard to be play defense in the NBA if you can’t really change directions that quickly. “Play defense with your feet, not your hands” is what the coaches preach, but that’s easy for them to say. They’re not the ones who have to deal with the interior presence of gigantic musclebound behemoths like Dwight Howard or the zippy driving point guards that populate every team.
Lack of lateral movement is the thing that keeps players like Boban Marjanovic (god dammit SVG just play him who even cares about defense) glued to the bench, and it’s a serious deficiency in a league that loves running pick-and-rolls so much. Luckily, Magic Jokson is such a good offensive player that he more than makes up for whatever defensive shortcomings he has.
This wasn’t his best game ever in terms of crazy passes (he only had the one flashy assist), but he pulled down a ton of rebounds (more like tipped a ton of rebounds) and scored a decent amount of points. I think we’re getting spoiled a bit by his regular insane performances, so this might be his way of saying “don’t freak out when I don’t get a triple double every game”.