They needed him, the weight of playoff-level intensity resting on his scratched-up shoulders, and so Nikola Jokic didn’t come off the floor.
Not at the start of the fourth quarter Tuesday night, the Nuggets down five and reeling from a second quarter where they were slaughtered in non-Jokic minutes. Not even after a nine-point lead with eight minutes left, no spell of rest for the Joker, head coach Michael Malone riding with his MVP on a night where he didn’t seem to show a speck of fatigue. And certainly not after a heavyweight grudge match slogged into overtime, the numbers somehow less stunning than the heart he showed on his sleeve.