Michael Porter Jr. was so good in Game 1 despite poor shooting that Nikola Jokic thought MPJ made seven 3-pointers: “Crazy”
Jokic #Jokic
Nikola Jokic, ever studious, takes an instinctive first glance over the box score placed in front of him every time he sits for a postgame news conference. Something startled him Thursday night.
The two-time MVP lauded for his hoops IQ was alarmed when he saw Michael Porter Jr.’s 3-point stats after Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
“Mike was 2-for-11, and I thought he made, like, seven threes,” Jokic said, taking one of his patented long pauses.
“Crazy.”
That’s how good MPJ was in a 104-93 Nuggets win over the Miami Heat. Good enough to trick the Joker into imagining phantom 3-pointers.
Porter managed a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double with stellar defense in spite of ghastly efficiency in the one area of the game where the most is expected of him.
“He’s doing more than just knocking down shots,” Jamal Murray said, “and that’s dangerous.”
A pitiful perimeter night was mitigated by excellence in every other way. Recovery has been a theme of his career, and it was the theme of his first quarter in Game 1.
Twice, it looked like Porter had been beat off the dribble. Twice, his matchup had no way to see what was coming.
Jimmy Butler was first. He got Porter switched onto him, then the 24-year-old went under a ball screen as Butler charged into the lane. MPJ was caught behind him. But when Butler pulled up for a floater, Porter timed a block from behind to perfection and cleanly stuffed Miami’s star player.
Caleb Martin was next. He blew past Porter from the wing and had a clean look at a driving layup. But there was the 6-foot-10 Nuggets forward again, slapping the ball against the backboard.
“You just naturally get better at it the more you’re on the floor,” Porter said of his defense.
His dad told The Post before the Finals that he thought Porter, early in his NBA career, fell behind his peers on the defensive end of the floor because he didn’t get the opportunity to play more than three college games at Missouri, where Cuonzo Martin was coach and defensive development was a top priority.
The time MPJ has missed due to back surgeries is most evident at that end of the floor.
With every passing playoff game this year, it seems he’s closer and closer to being fully caught up.
“I think we’re past the point of praising Michael when he has a good defensive game,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “He needs to.”
Maturity showed at the offensive end as well by the end of the night. In the fourth quarter, after a stretch of forced Denver 3-pointers against Miami’s zone, Porter passed up an open corner three and attacked the rim. He drew a defender and dished to Jokic, who touch-passed to a cutting Jeff Green. The layup revived Ball Arena.
The sequence started with self-awareness by Porter.
“We’re in the NBA Finals, and I had missed my last few threes that were good looks,” he said. “I’ll never lose confidence in my shot, but I think after missing a few, maybe try to get downhill. And then the guy came over, and Nikola was there.”
On a historic night on the Front Range when Jokic’s triple-double made Colorado and the NBA world marvel, Porter managed to make Jokic gape.
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