Nikola Jokic set the tone for Sunday afternoon’s game by scoring 22 points in the first quarter.
In a Sunday without NFL football, the NBA was officially king. The Denver Nuggets were looking to get back in victorious standing after their five-game winning streak was snapped in a 119-109 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. On the other side of the court were the Utah Jazz, currently riding a ridiculous 11-game win streak.
Of course, the man to step up for Denver was star center Nikola Jokic.
Jokic tied a career-high in scoring with 47 points, with 22 of them coming in the first quarter alone, to help lead the Nuggets to a 128-117 victory over the Jazz.
Jokic was no joke on Sunday
Jokic set the tone in the first 12 minutes of the game, where he shot 9-for-11 from the field to give the Nuggets a 43-29 lead at the end of the first quarter. That was a new single-quarter record for Jokic, who scored 21 points in Denver’s 107-106 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 8, 2020.
The career marks didn’t end there — Jokic’s 33 points at halftime were the highest since he put up 27 against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 6, 2020. In fact, no Nuggets player has put up 33 points at halftime since Hall-of-Fame point guard Allen Iverson did so back on Dec. 5, 2007!
Utah did have an off-night scoring, as they shot 42.7 percent from the field as a team. The only player to put up more than 20 points was forward Bojan Bogdanovic, who recorded 27 points. In comparison, the Nugget shot 54 percent from the field.
The Nuggets will look to carry this momentum on Monday night when they host the Detroit Pistons. As for the Jazz, they will look to start another win streak on Tuesday night at the expense of the Pistons.