Mavs 124, Nuggets 117

[Thukydides]

Just looked at the numbers. Jokic had 10+ ast in 6/8 games this season. Four is a season low. 53.7% TS is also a season low.
Whatever the Mavs did really limited Jokic´s passing game. I think the biggest reason was not WCS playing good 1v1 defense (although that obviously helped) but Richardson and DFS denying the hand off. Usually the Nuggets run the Murray/Harris/Bartion-Jokic two-man game. With multiple screens and hand offs. At some point the defense collapses and Jokic finds the open man. When the handoffs and screens cannot force switches or collapse the defense Jokic is forced into an iso/post up situation.
That´s exactly what happened against the Mavs. Less high post/ellbow playmaking and more lowpost scoring.

That´s a good point. DFS was very good and J-Rich was absolutely insanely good denying the cutters.