Miroslav Cuk

Everybody was complaining about the late start to the game, but I for one enjoyed the opportunity to sleep for more than half of the night.

Anyway, even though Spencer Jones was finally available for the game, he did not start, and I believe I know why, but more on that later.

a bit later in the show.

Julian was once more the fifth starter next to Jamal, Christian, Cam and Nikola and he used his time well.

He made six out of his first seven threes and had he hit one of the last three, the Nuggets would have probably won this game.

Bruce Brown was great off the bench, hitting his first six shots and Cam Johnson had the best game since he came back from the injury.

All that was in vain because Nikola Jokic had another subpar game for his standards, turning the ball over as often as making an assist.

His defense looked a bit better, actually, but it felt like he was gassed at the end of the game.

Also, he has missed all of his threes, and all of them were short, and 9 of 16 from the two-point distance would have looked much better had he put some of those misses back in, as he usually does.

Jamal was just 3 of 12 in the first three quarters, made some big shots down the stretch, but missed another clutch free throw that would have tied the game and taken it to overtime.

21 hours later, the team played in Portland.

My first note, we need to calm down with praising the Nuggets for winning a lot of games on the second night of a back-to-back.

It's not that big of a deal, but more on that in a couple of minutes.

The game started with Joker turning his scoring setting all the way to 11.

Shout out to Adam Mares and Ray Martinelli for making me think of spinal tap when we're talking about this.

The big guy scored 19 points in the first quarter despite missing five shots in that frame alone.

That's how determined he was to shake Donovan Klingon's confidence.

Despite Joker's 12 field goal attempts in the first 12 minutes, six other Nuggets scored as well, which was a sign of things to come in the remainder of this game.

Jamal scored 15 in the second.

Tim Hardaway joined the dynamic duo in the third.