Nikola Jokić finally gets help he needs as Julian Strawther, youngsters show up in Nuggets' Game 6 win vs. OKC
When the fourth quarter of Game 6 between the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder began on Thursday, the best player in the world was not on the floor. This was relatively surprising in the context of the rest of this postseason. Whenever Nuggets coach David Adelman has felt he's absolutely needed a win -- Game 4 against the Clippers, Game 5 against the Thunder -- he's played Nikola Jokić the entire final frame.
The results have been mixed. Denver won Game 4 against the Clippers ... but blew a 22-point lead in the process. Denver lost Game 5 to the Thunder, but Jokić was sensational with 13 of Denver's 19 points. It's a desperation move, one made only because of badly the Nuggets have struggled without him for basically his entire career. Denver would love to at least sneak him a minute or two in these critical games. Their bench just by and large hasn't made that possible.
But Adelman was comfortable taking the risk of pulling Jokić off of the floor on Thursday night because barely-used reserve Julian Strawther had just played perhaps the best 100 seconds of his life. With the score tied at 80, Strawther scored eight points in the final 1:37 of the third quarter. That gave Adelman an unexpected cushion, and he used it to give Jokić a well-earned breather. Strawther ultimately scored 15 points in the win, all in the second half.
With 10:29 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets had extended their lead to 11 on a Jamal Murray 3-pointer. This would have been a logical moment to get Jokić back on the floor. Denver had successfully stolen 90 seconds of game time without him. But Adelman, again, trusted his bench. The wheels very nearly came off. Oklahoma City scored four quick points and had a chance at a transition dunk to cut it to five. Peyton Watson denied them that chance with a vicious block of Jalen Williams. A few possessions later, Watson pulled in a critical offensive rebound on a missed Russell Westbrook 3-pointer that set Strawther up for free throws. That foul was the stoppage that got Jokić back on the floor.
Typically, these wouldn't be things worth fixating on within a series featuring perhaps the two best players in the world and several future Hall of Famers. But this matchup, for the most part, has boiled down to whether or not Denver's supporting cast could give Jokić, Murray and Aaron Gordon even a sliver of support.
Denver managed to win Game 3 despite an 0-for-10 3-point shooting night from Jokić because Michael Porter Jr. had his first good shooting game of the playoffs. They lost Games 4 and 5 because Nuggets not named Jokić shot 6-of-31 from the floor and 1-of-19 from 3-point range in two fourth quarters in which they held sizable leads. For the series entering Game 6, Jokić had racked up 74 potential assists, but only 26 total assists because his teammates kept missing the shots he was creating for them. The starting lineup had outscored the Thunder by 31 points, but they were losing the series because every other unit they put on the floor was flailing.
In this specific series, a bench player exploding for 15 points qualifies as a major development. Those two huge Watson plays killed Oklahoma City rallies that might have been able to swing the game, and therefore the series. We haven't even gotten to Christian Braun yet, who chipped in 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Former Denver general manager Calvin Booth bet the franchise's championship window on these young players growing up in time to give Jokić the affordable support he'd need to keep contending. He was fired, in part, because they hadn't earned former coach Michael Malone's trust by April. This caused no shortage of organizational friction, but based on what we'd seen prior to both of their dismissals, Malone wasn't exactly wrong. There just wasn't much evidence coming into the 2025 postseason that Strawther and Watson would be viable bench players. Braun, even after breaking out in the regular season, has struggled offensively for a lot of these playoffs.
But in the biggest game of the season to date, those young players delivered. Whether Adelman's trust will ultimately be rewarded or if this was a one-game fluke, the Nuggets are still alive because of some of their most maligned players. Jokić doesn't need much to keep his team in a game. Nobody's asking Strawther to score 30 or Watson to lock down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for a full game. However, if the supporting cast can just give him what they did on Thursday, he can potentially take the Nuggets the rest of the way.
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