Potentially concerning number for Denver: The low Jokic shot attempts/points from tonight are a trend in pretty much every game they've played against high seeds. He came into today averaging 24/13/11 on 57% TS against top 5 seeds in 7 games against top 5 seeds (Denver being 2-5 in them.)

Any center needs an entry pass and teams have shown that they're simply willing to force everyone else to beat them and sell out to stop Jokic from shooting the ball

As incredible a playmaker as Jokic is it's simply impossible physically for a 7 foot center to bring the ball up every single play like a 2019 Harden/current Luka so ball denial can be an effective strategy

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/jokic-stats-against-the-knicks-cavs-thunder-and-lakers-this-season (he hasn't played against the Grizzlies Pacers Bucks or Rockets yet)

Not that those numbers are bad in an absolute sense but the difference between 30 PPG on 66% TS and 24 PPG on 57% TS is absolutely MASSIVE and not really one that they can make up for in other areas

After tonight it's literally 2 games each against 4 different teams so you can't say that it's one team that just really bothers them it seems like in general good teams can just triple team Jokic and screw with Denver