Jazz and Nuggets asking same question heading to Game 2: How can they slow down the stars?

SALT LAKE CITY — Denver center Nikola Jokic had a pretty reasonable reaction to watching Donovan Mitchell's historic scoring display Monday in Game 1.

“Not good. That's not good for us,” Jokic deadpanned.

Jokic could afford to be a little lighthearted following the first game of the first round of the NBA playoffs. Even with Mitchell stamping his name in playoff history with a 57-point performance for the Utah Jazz, the third-most points ever scored in a playoff game, the Nuggets walked away with the one-game lead in the best-of-seven series.

But as both teams reconvened for practice on Tuesday, they were asking a different version of the same question. For the Nuggets: How can we slow down Mitchell? For the Jazz: How can we stop Jokic and Jamal Murray?

Mitchell’s stat line speaks for itself: 57 points, 7 assists, 13 of 13 free throws. He did whatever he wanted on the offensive end — he split double teams, he got to the rim, he scored at all three levels.

Jokic and Jamal Murray’s stat lines also said plenty — Jokic: 29 points and 10 rebounds; Murray: 36 points (20 in the fourth quarter and overtime) and nine assists.

“If Donovan Mitchell averages 57 and we win, I'll stay away from the drawing board,” Denver coach Michael Malone said following Monday’s game.

That said, don't expect Malone to not make adjustments on Wednesday when the teams meet in Game 2 (2 p.m., TNT). The thing is, the Nuggets already threw a lot at Mitchell in the first game.

At times, they had Jokic drop back in pick-and-roll coverage and Mitchell either jumped around him for athletic layups or hit floaters. In other pick and rolls, Jokic jumped out to challenge Mitchell high and Mitchell just blew right by him.

The Nuggets even tried to double team Mitchell at times — which he effortlessly split. And they threw multiple defenders at him — none of them proved effective (Denver’s Torrey Craig being in foul trouble forced this a bit, but it’s not like Craig, who’s had success against Mitchell in the past, was a Mitchell-stopper on Monday).

“I don't know if there was a lot that we really did well,” Malone said about his team’s defensive effort on Mitchell. “He's a strong right-hand driver and we let him get to his right hand quite a bit. And that's just guarding one on one, he got to the foul line 13 times. So we have to give them different looks, obviously. We have to make some adjustments.”

So what else could Denver due to counter? First, Craig staying in the game wouldn’t hurt, but it was Mitchell, too, that forced that. Craig had five fouls in 21 minutes. Those were all drawn by Mitchell. Craig said on Tuesday that he didn’t think a couple of them were fouls and that he’ll have a stronger focus on staying out of foul trouble heading into Wednesday. The next is getting the ball out of Mitchell's hands either by doubling him up top or collapsing on him when he drives to force a pass.

Mitchell has shown good enough vision to find the open guy, but after what Mitchell did on Monday, Denver might be more willing to give Royce O’Neale, Georges Niang and Juwan Morgan (who combined to shoot 3 of 11 from 3-point range Monday) some open looks to help stop Mitchell’s penetration.

“He can shoot the 3, he can get to the rim, he got to the foul line,” Malone said. “So we just have to make things tough for him and I think our players understand that.”

The Jazz understand the same thing: Jokic is going to get his. In all four matchups against Utah this season, Jokic has scored at least 28 points. The points are going to come, but Utah can't let them come easy.

“Everybody’s got to contribute to that, it can’t just be Rudy (Gobert),” Snyder said. “You’ve got to try to create some uncertainty to make them a little less comfortable. Understand that when we talk about, quote-unquote, ‘stopping Jokic’ here, that’s guarding Denver, because he does so many things. It’s not just him on the post, or him in a two-man game. He’s doing so many other things, passing the ball, and they obviously play off him.”

That was very apparent down the stretch in the fourth quarter and overtime. Jokic and Murray played a two-man — and we do mean a two-man game. Down the stretch, the Nuggets weren't afraid to simply spread the floor and simply play two-on-two.

It was so blatant at times that they had three players standing in the same corner as Murray and Jokic went to work. This is when Murray, who scored 20 points in the final 8:13 of the game (including overtime), feasted. Murray usually used a simple pick by Jokic to give himself a bit of space to either find a shot, or get into the lane, or hit a stepback in what was a phenomenal display of shotmaking. Utah doesn't usually send help on pick-and-rolls mostly because Gobert is the best in the NBA at defending them. But if Denver stacks three guys on top of each other again, the Jazz might be able to send some a third player at Murray and Jokic without leaving a Denver player wide open.

While the Jazz are more than willing to tip the cap to Murray's late-game performance, they say there are things they can — and will — do better.

“I think they were tough shots, but he’s a good player, so he’s going to make those shots and he did last night,” Jazz guard Joe Ingles said. “I can look at it and break down and probably nitpick a lot of things that I could have done better.”

The one time Ingles forced Murray to pass by strongly contesting a shot, Murray found Jokic for an open 3-pointer. That illustrates the danger of sending more help at Murray and Jokic — they will often make the correct play. So while Snyder said he wants to be able to make it so that Gobert and Ingles (or O’Neale who may have not guarded Murray down the stretch Monday due to being in foul trouble) don’t have to guard the Jokic-Murray pairing themselves, it’s not always that simple.

“We want to give each other help and not play that game two on two,” Snyder said. “That’s sometimes easier said than done.”

Easier said than done — that’s something both teams discovered on Monday.

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