Nikola Jokic destroyed the Lakers during last year’s Western Conference Finals, averaging 27.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and 11.8 assists in a sweep. To nobody’s surprise, he’s doing it again in a 2024 first-round rematch, putting up 29.5 points, 16.0 rebounds and 8.5 assists to give Denver a 2-0 series lead.
How do the Lakers stop this guy? Head coach Darvin Ham admitted that he didn’t have many answers.
“He knows how to kill you in a variety of different ways. You just gotta put constant pressure on him, that doesn’t seem to bother him either,” Ham told reporters before Game 2.
“It’s like sh—. I don’t know what to do.”
Anthony Davis came into Game 2 loudly proclaiming that he’s “the best defensive player in the league.” He might be right, and Jokic still dropped 27 points while grabbing 20 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists.
In fairness to Davis, he wasn’t guarding Jokic for the entire game. And AD defended him better than others. Here’s what has worked and what hasn’t when it comes to slowing down the greatest offensive player in the league.
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Davis has played Jokic pretty well as his primary defender, holding the big man to 6-of-15 shooting in the series per the league’s matchup data.
While that sounds good on paper, Jokic also has seven assists to zero turnovers with Davis guarding him. He’s removed AD as a rim protector and let his teammates go off instead.
The Jokic-Jamal Murray two-man game has had its best moments in these situations, with Davis needing to stick to Jokic. That has given Murray a clear runway to the basket.
Jokic has also thrown it inside to Aaron Gordon, who has finished easily over smaller Lakers players.
While the AD strategy technically slows Jokic down, it doesn’t help the Lakers all that much because Denver will still find other ways to beat Los Angeles.
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The Lakers started the series with Hachimura as the default matchup on Jokic, allowing Davis to play a roamer role. That hasn’t worked well either — Jokic is shooting 11-of-16 in that matchup, with six assists to one turnover.
When help hasn’t come quickly, Hachimura has been too small to do much. Jokic has a 54-pound weight advantage, and the combination of strength and finesse has been overwhelming.
When doubles have come, Jokic is going to find the right pass every time. The Nuggets were well-prepared for this defensive strategy, and they’ve built in too many counters to make it effective.
This was the Lakers’ trump card in last year’s series. They couldn’t go to it frequently because of how much energy LeBron James had to expend, but it worked the best out of any of their options.
The Lakers have rolled it out for only a handful of possessions in this year’s series. James should be able to hold up better than Hachimura in that matchup, slowing down Jokic just enough to allow AD to come and help. In practice, he’s forced Jokic into some tough fadeaways that the Joker made look easy.
Despite the lack of success thus far, that coverage is theoretically the team’s best and might be Ham’s next adjustment. With Los Angeles in desperation mode, it may have to go to it more and ask James to carry an even heavier load over these next few games.
