Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia; Adolph Northen; 1866

We’ve entered an interesting new phase of the Nikola Jokic arc. Having proven that he’s a winner, that he’s selfless, that he eschews self-triumphalism, that he’d rather help lesser teammates — all his teammates are lesser, always — score points than put up numbers himself, Jokic has come to a realization that sometimes, when the circumstances require it, you have to do it yourself or it’s just not going to get done.

And so here we are, with Jamal Murray taking the weekend off in hopes of healing his hamstring and perhaps joie de vivre. With a back-to-back in D.C. and Atlanta and the Nuggets floating just above .500 in a West where floating just above .500 means you’re in the play-in, Jokic acted like so many Best Players Alive have in the past: he took over.

On Saturday, that came out to 56 points on 22/38 shooting in a dreadful, embarrassing loss to the Wizards, who’d dropped 16 straight.

On Sunday it meant 48 points on 17/25 shooting in a comfortable win against the Hawks.

In D.C., the Nuggets’ defense was lit up like a menorah by a truly awful offense; hence the loss despite Jokic’s outburst. The defense held on Sunday in Atlanta with Jalen Johnson and Bogdan Bogdanovic out and essential Aaron Gordon back in. Jokic still didn’t trust it much, or his teammates to score. This is wise given the state of the Other Nuggets, which has always been what has held Denver back from triumph when the team hasn’t achieved what a player like Jokic makes possible.

Jokic was good enough in the bubble to carry the Nuggets to the NBA Finals, but the Other Nuggets (minus Jamal Murray) weren’t ready and the Lakers took advantage. Then Murray suffered a catastrophic injury immediately after the Nuggets acquired Aaron Gordon, which had Jokic and the Nuggets fighting for No. 6 seeds. Once Murray returned, the Nuggets won a title. Then roster attrition came, Murray had a bad series, no one else stepped up alongside Jokic and the Nuggets fell short of the conference finals. And now more roster attrition, an even worse-looking Murray when he’s healthy enough to play, some rare injury time for Gordon and … this: a 12-10 team that needs 104 points from Jokic over a weekend to split a pair of games in D.C. and Atlanta.

Individual superstars aren’t always forced into scoring like this. Some of them like it. It’s what makes some of them superstars. That’s never been Jokic, and that’s part of why he is so broadly liked by neutral NBA fans with no connections to Denver or the Nuggets. Selflessness is a beautiful paint with which to compose a team. This, instead, is Jokic’s imperial era, borne of necessity due to the failure of others: his general manager, his franchisee, his coach, his teammates. Frankly, it usually does not work. (I’m reminded of 2009 and 2010 LeBron on the Cavaliers.) But options are coming off the board for Denver. Unless Murray regains form, Michael Porter Jr. stops falling asleep on defense and the younger supplemental players pop, this is who the Nuggets have to be simply to survive.

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Scores

Friday

Magic 94, Sixers 102 — Very good win for Philadelphia but the biggest story out of this game: Franz Wagner tore his oblique and is out at least four weeks. Yes, that’s the same injury Paolo Banchero suffered. Horrible. I’m sorry, Magic fans.

Bucks 105, Celtics 111 — Hopefully you can survive the Boston crew’s dramatic overstatement here but this is important material in Jaylen Brown vs. Giannis beef lore.

Lakers 132, Hawks 134 — This overtime had it all: some Lakers dysfunction, a LeBron chasedown block, a Trae Young game-winner. Sheesh.

Kings 140, Spurs 113 — Kings fixed? Monitoring.

Meanwhile,

Just a fine for ol’ Zach. Gotta learn another language if you’re going to drop choice words in a long string like that.

Pacers 132, Bulls 123

Jazz 141, Blazers 99 — Damn, Blazers.

Timberwolves 107, Warriors 90 — Anthony Edwards with basically a perfect fourth quarter (11 points plus 4 assists, three of them for Rudy Gobert) to put the Warriors to sleep.

However, I would recommend that Edwards not do this when he has a game in the same arena against the same dude in two days.

Saturday

Cavaliers 116, Hornets 102

Thunder 119, Pelicans 109 — The Pelicans are looking better. Unfortunately, they are still losing most of their games and sit eight games out of the last play-in spot. And now Brandon Ingram is injured.

Nuggets 113, Wizards 122 — Get your swimsuit on, folks. It’s a Poole Party.

Mavericks 125, Raptors 118 — Kudos to Toronto for making it interesting down the stretch. Dallas is really good, though. Top-5 team in the league.

Pistons 120, Knicks 111 — No Karl-Anthony Towns in this one. Cade Cunningham is playing awesome.

Suns 111, Heat 121

Grizzlies 127, Celtics 121 — Signature win for Memphis. They had the rest advantage, but Boston had everyone except Al Horford active. Tremendous defensive effort for the Grizzlies. Ja Morant is back back.

Didn’t he just say he was retired from dunking? Like … last week?

Sunday

Sixers 108, Bulls 100 — All we had to do to get Joel Embiid back in uniform is have Jokic go for 50.

I love Joel, as you know as a reader of this newsletter. I watched him go for 50 while moving like a 70-year-old man last spring in the playoffs. The dude is still moving like a 70-year-old man. It’s effective, but it does not seem good.

Bucks 118, Nets 113 — The Bucks are 10-3 over the past four weeks, just 3.5 games out of third place.

Hornets 113, Pacers 109 — I know Charlotte’s defense has been better since LaMelo Ball got injured. But the Indiana starting lineup — their opening day starting lineup, mind you, with no injuries — scored a combined 49 points on 43 FGAs. That’s not enough points! Nine each for Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton. T.J. McConnell tried to save them but some people just don’t want to be saved.

Cavaliers 113, Heat 122 — Evan Mobley left early with an ankle sprain that doesn’t seem serious, but that’s not an excuse for a rare Cleveland loss, but Miami is playing well and Tyler Herro is out of his mind right now.

This should count for extra, not count for zero.

Nuggets 141, Hawks 111

Suns 110, Magic 115 — 11-2 with Kevin Durant, 1-9 without him. I’m sensing a trend. Meanwhile, the Magic just continue to win despite devastating injuries. Look at Goga Bitadze dropping 21-16 on Mason Plumlee.

Pelicans 116, Spurs 121 — Fitting that Chris Paul passed Jason Kidd for second all-time on the assists list with a pass to Victor Wembanyama for three.

The Dejounte Murray experience for New Orleans: not great so far.

Grizzlies 140, Wizards 112 — Glimpses of joy are all too brief for Wizardia. But thankfully, Yuki Kawamura is in the giving spirit.

Timberwolves 106, Warriors 114 — See, Ant? Don’t taunt the Warriors when the Warriors are 48 hours away. They have all sorts of hexes and curses. They’ll have Draymond Green out here hitting you with the Night Night.

Question for the room: by calling off the dogs in this clip …

Is Draymond …

a) trying to normalize hard fouls

b) showing respectful deference to Ant, with whom he would not prefer smoke

c) showing growth with impulse control?

Because this is the same team against which he choked an opponent due to an unrelated scuffle, a year ago.

Jazz 97, Kings 141 — Still monitoring.

Rockets 117, Clippers 106 — No Fred VanVleet or Tari Eason, but also no James Harden. Still a good win for Houston. The West is getting very tight.

Blazers 98, Lakers 107 — LeBron finally sat. No 82-game season for the King. Fortunately for the strugglebus Lakers, the Blazers are in one of their moods.

Schedule

Just one game as the fandom gets prepared for NBA CUP ACTION on Tuesday and Wednesday. There are only eight total games between now and Friday. Isn’t that wild? One tonight, two tomorrow, two on Wednesday, three on Thursday. And then just two on Saturday. The NBA Cup! Reconnecting families in early December since 2023!

Knicks at Raptors, 7:30 ET, NBA TV

Be excellent to each other.