Nikola Jokic will bring his dominating brand of basketball south of the border on Saturday when the Denver Nuggets tip off against the Indiana Pacers in Mexico City.
For the third straight year, an NBA game will be played in Mexico City during the week of Mexico’s annual Dia de Muertos holiday, with a themed basketball court to celebrate the occasion.
Guarding Jokic likely will be no holiday for the Pacers, as the three-time NBA MVP recorded his third triple-double of the season and 201st of his career during Denver’s 128-109 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.
Jokic collected 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds through three quarters of action. As a reward, the 6-foot-11, 284-pounder was allowed to rest for the entire fourth quarter.
Jokic made 13 of 19 shots from the floor, a promising sign given his early-season shooting woes.
“To be honest, I don’t know why, but when I’m shooting and I’m practicing, I’m kind of making it, but I’m not making it in the game,” the Serbian center said. “But I think the struggle, it’s a privilege. It pushes you to get better. Push you to think, ‘What’s the problem?’ So it’s definitely a privilege.”
Nuggets head coach David Adelman said he is confident that Jokic’s shots will routinely find the mark in no time.
“Some of the shots I think we’re so accustomed to seeing he never misses … they’re coming,” Adelman said. “This is a (small) sample size of one of the most efficient offensive basketball players that’s ever lived. I’ll die on that sword.”
Aaron Gordon scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor on Wednesday, two days after he was limited to just five points in Denver’s 118-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Jamal Murray contributed 14 points and Cameron Johnson added 12 for the Nuggets, who played without DeMar DeRozan (back spasms).
Denver will be competing in its first regular-season game in Mexico and its second game there overall. The Nuggets played a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors in Monterrey on Oct. 14, 2006.
Indiana, which will be playing its first game in Mexico, snapped a five-game losing skid with a 107-103 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
“We had to do some soul-searching heading into this game. We have not been playing up to a consistent level of intensity, force, collective will,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said.
Andrew Nembhard scored 22 points, marking the third straight game in which he has reached at least that total.
“We’ve been below the standard,” Nembhard told DAZN after the win. “We just wanted to focus on our process. Win or lose tonight, we wanted to be comfortable with the effort we put out there.”
On Saturday, he will play in a game against his younger brother, Ryan, who is a guard for the Nuggets.
Pascal Siakam scored 20 points on Wednesday. He needs 20 more to reach 13,000 for his career. Saturday will mark his 700th NBA game.
