The Denver Nuggets have picked up this season exactly where they left off last season after winning the 2022-23 NBA Championship. Two-time MVP and reigning NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic has gotten off to a historic start to the 2023-24 campaign in hopes of defending the Nuggets title, recording nine straight games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds to start the season.
Jokic is joining elite company as a result of this streak. Kevin Garnett and Karl Malone, two Hall of Famers, are the only other players to accomplish this feat since the NBA-ABA merger dating back to the 1976-77 season, per ESPN Stats & Info on X (also known as Twitter).
Jamal Murray, Jokic’s co-star with the Nuggets, has been out with a hamstring injury that will sideline him for at least three more weeks. With that in mind, Jokic has had to shoulder a bigger workload than usual and it showed in last night’s victory over the Golden State Warriors. Jokic scored 35 points while shooting 14 of 25 from the floor to go with 13 rebounds, five assists, three steals, and a block.
The massive performance extended Jokic’s streak of consecutive 20-point and 10-rebound games to nine while willing the Nuggets to an NBA-best 8-1 record through the first three weeks of the season.
Jokic and the Nuggets are sending a message to the rest of the league that if they want to steal the crown and be labeled NBA champions in 2023-24, they will have to take it from them.
