Adam Silver was in attendance tonight, doing his usual Q&A sesh with the home commentators. He got to see up close the phenom known as Nikola Jokic. He got to see a “triple-double”. I put that in quotes because I really have to take issue with some of the assists. It’s fine, when the comissioner isn’t around, to cook the books a little bit and give Jokic some iffy assists. Whatever. It is NOT fine, when the commissioner is around. Silver’s BS detector is well-honed. It had to be, to get where he is today. And he will soon sniff out the GRATUITOUS assists that were handed out to Jokic. There were only two really bad ones, but that’s enough to take this performance from a triple-double to a mere double-double with 8 assists. That’s a pretty harsh drop in a league where trip-dubs are seemingly more important than winning.
Speaking of winning, the Nuggets did win this one, but not as cleanly as I was expecting. That’s the NBA for you, I guess. The Pistons are pretty hopeless, but they have some talent, and the Nuggets let their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter to let them (kinda) back in it. I get the feeling that, as I predicted, Paul Millsap is ruining everything and now they might not even make the playoffs. I said this would happen, and the only cure now is to put Millsap in a dumpster and then demand that Jokic shoot the ball more. Way more.