DENVER — “Honestly, it feels like we just stopped playing yesterday.”
Those were the words of forward Aaron Gordon on Denver’s starting five after his defending champion Nuggets began their repeat campaign with a win over the Lakers Tuesday night.
In doing so, the Nuggets served notice to a league that has once again shuffled superstars and rotations. The message?
This is the best starting five in basketball.
The latest splashy trade or free-agent addition headlines every season in the modern NBA. The new-look Suns with Bradley Beal. The new-look Warriors with Chris Paul. The new-look Bucks with Dame. Or the new-look Celtics with Jrue Holiday.
But those teams will take time to figure out who they are, how they fit together, and the secret to their identity and their chemistry.
The Nuggets have nothing to figure out.
“It’s really a crazy feeling, being with a group of guys that we can take all the time off and just get right back in. That’s why it’s so important to have a core group of guys like these really good teams. We just are used to playing together, we know where one another is going to be,” Michael Porter Jr. said.
And of course, at the figurative and literal center of it all, there’s reigning Finals MVP and consensus best player in the world Nikola Jokic.
Jokic said after the game that Denver beat the Lakers because of how much the Nuggets starters “trust and believe” in each other.
The Nuggets’ starters finished with a 126 offensive rating. They blistered the Lakers from start to finish, save a predictable slide in the second quarter with a big lead. When perennial DPOY candidate and top-75 player Anthony Davis was on the floor, Denver had a 129 offensive rating. That matched the eye test, with Jokic once again moving through AD like water.
And despite the Lakers’ resilience and grit to get back into the game and reach single digits late in the second half, when the game reached 92-89 Nuggets with 9:42 remaining, Jokic would re-enter — and the Nuggets would close 23-12 to make it a 14 point lead with three minutes to go and ice it.
The value of Denver’s continuity cannot be overstated. Even in the first game of the season, the Nuggets were sharp. Denver had just 11 turnovers on the night and shot 53 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3-point range, while hitting four more 3s than the Lakers.
Jokic was as phenomenal as ever with a light 29-13-11. Aaron Gordon did all the things that pulls the unit together with 15 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the surprise with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with his phenomenal defense adding three steals and a block.
On a night where Jamal Murray was patient as the Lakers blitzed him to get the ball out of his hands — after he averaged 32.5 points on 50-40-90 splits in Denver's Western Conference finals sweep of Los Angeles — he still put in 21 points and six assists.
To reiterate: 21 and six on 61-60-100 splits was the “quiet” night.
But even then, the box score doesn’t capture what Denver does to their opponents. It’s the cutting and motion with size and athleticism for dunks and layups mixed with precision shooting. It’s the way the opposing defense is constantly left frustrated.
After the game, the Nuggets had no trash talk to levy against the Lakers, who made such a big deal of the Nuggets’ talk in the offseason. Davis said the Lakers were looking forward to the game after he and LeBron talked about how much the Nuggets talked. In reality, those conversations were limited to some comments at the parade and one comment from Michael Malone on a podcast.
Porter Jr. said after the game that Denver preferred to let their game speak for itself.
On an emotional night when the team watched the franchise’s first banner lift to the rafters and players marveled at the intricate championship rings (which rotate to different backgrounds and contain a separate, smaller ring for “casual wear”), the Nuggets were not rattled, off-kilter, or caught off guard.
Even if the NBA championship odds don't necessarily reflect it after Tuesday night, with the Celtics and Bucks tied at the top at +400 and Denver still +550 at DraftKings, the Nuggets just picked up where they left off… at the top.
