Happy Jokmas! Nuggets are Streaking at Home and on the Road

We celebrate Jokmas and retrace how one bold choice turned Jokic into the franchise’s axis while breaking down a seven-game run that mixed an odd home slide with an elite road streak. We make fresh predictions, own past misses, and share a simple way to be a better fan.

• seven-game recap with Suns, Pacers, Hawks, Hornets, Kings
• NBA Cup miss after Spurs loss and what it means
• Jokmas origin and Malone’s decision to start Jokic
• the Clippers what-if and development context
• current form as 18–6 with road streak at eleven
• predictions for Rockets and a Jokic mega line
• correcting last episode’s calls and lessons learned
• bench maturity and fewer blown leads
• why the Hornets broadcast is pure basketball joy

Celebrate today. It is a Nuggets holiday.

Chapters

• 0:04 Seven-Game Recap And Cup Fallout
• 1:59 Road Surge Vs Home Slide
• 2:36 The Origin Story Of Yokmis
• 5:05 Trade What-Ifs And Franchise Fate
• 6:31 Predictions For Rockets And Jokic
• 8:02 Owning Past Misses And Bench Maturity
• 10:29 Better Fandom: Enjoy Other Broadcasts
• 13:10 Rest, Renew, And Happy Yokmis

Transcript

Brian: 0:04

Alright everyone, welcome back to Fandom from Afar. Another episode for you today, kind of a special one, Nugget Nuggets Holiday Edition. And uh we're gonna review the games that have happened since we last recorded. I'm gonna tell the story of Jokmas, and then we'll get into some predictions and corrections from the last episode and always, as always, how to be a better fan. So let's jump right into it. The Nuggets had seven games since we last recorded, and it started off with a loss to the Spurs, which meant the Nuggets do not get to advance to the elimination round for the NBA Cup yet again. But they bounced back with a win against the Suns. The Suns are surprisingly good this year, and the Nuggets are better. We then lost to the Mavericks at home, extending our home losing streak to four, which is one of the weirder things this season. The Nuggets have been so good, yet we have lost four games at home where we should have a huge advantage, and all four games have been to teams that we should easily beat. I have no explanation for it, but it is what it is. We've lost four at home. Nuggets then went out on the road and beat the Pacers. Jamal Murray had a coming out party with 52 points. He made it look easy. It is the year of Jamal Star. Next game, a win against the Hawks. Jokic had an easy 40. Tim Hardaway Jr. hit a bunch of threes and had 17 off the bench. Nuggets get the victory. Next game, Hornets, another victory. Jokic and Jamal combined for 62. Pretty easy win. Nuggets just look so Jokic calls them professional, which really means that the whole team is kind of playing together and just dominating these teams. We should win. And then last game was a win against the Kings. The road win streak is at 11. So again, home win, home losing streak at four, road winning streak at eleven. I can't explain it, but I'll take it. The Nuggets are 18 and 6, which is the best start in franchise history. Now, this is obviously getting overshadowed by OKC just never losing a game, even though they just lost to the Spurs this weekend. So they are not invincible. I still feel confident that the Nuggets can put up a good fight come playoff time. We'll just have to wait a few months to see. Now, I mentioned that this is a Nuggets holiday edition, and that is because today is Jokmas. Jokmas is a made-up holiday by Nuggets fans to celebrate the insertion of Nikolo Jokic in the starting lineup way back in 2016, and that decision changed the franchise history forever. So every year I have to say, congratulations to Coach Malone for making that decision because I really think a lot of coaches would not have been brave enough to do so. The reasons being Jokic was still so young and he was so different. He was unlike any other player in the league and still is, but he was a young, raw version of himself who made some great plays, was solid fundamentally, the potential was there, but he was young. He was terrible at defense, he was slow. All the reasons why a coach would not be brave enough to put him in the starting lineup, but Coach Malone saw something and decided to start Jokic. Now, another way or another reason that he could have not made this decision is the the Nuggets had uh Yusuf Nurkic, easy for me to say, and he was good, not great, but he was good. He was a young, promising big man, and he had done well in his own way. He was more of a traditional center, and coach still found a way to get Jokic in the lineup, and the Nuggets were never the same. Now, Nurkic obviously pouted his way out of town, but Jokic took off to become possibly the greatest player ever. So I know I've told that story before, but it really cannot be understated how important that decision was to the Nuggets franchise. It led to our only championship, it led to Jokic winning three MVPs, it led to the Nuggets having what is perhaps their greatest stretch in their entire franchise history. And some of the coverage of Jokmas in the past has been really interesting. Like there's reports that have surfaced from way back in 2016 about trade rumors that the Clippers were trying to trade for, I think it was Galinari and a couple other players, and Jokic was almost thrown in as an afterthought, and they would have given us an aging Blake Griffin. Now, can you imagine if Jokic would have got traded to the Clippers and dominated for them? Oh, it would be the most heartbreaking Nuggets I I can't even think of it. It would just be terrible. Not only A, because Jokic I think is inevitable and he would have dominated for them, no matter if it was for the Clippers or another team if he would have got traded again. But the Nuggets never get free agents like Jokic to sign with us. And so if we would have traded him away and then watch him become a three-time All-Star, I mean sorry, three-time MVP and just dominate the league like he's been doing for us, I would have been so sad. But in a way, it might have been a blessing in disguise for Jokic to stay in Denver because of just the media market. I think as Jokic was growing, it was a benefit for him not to have a media swarm around him all the time, picking apart every little detail because he did have growing to do, and he was such an unusual player that he might have got frustrated with how the media covered him out in LA and went back to Europe for all we know. So I think it worked out great for everyone, except for Clippers fans in that case. But just the what-ifs as you look back, Jokmas and what he's brought to our franchise really is crazy. So if you aren't already, celebrate Jokmas tonight with your loved ones. I'm wearing my Jokmas sweatshirt to celebrate the day, and let me be the first to say happy Jokmas, everyone. Let's get into some predictions. We're in kind of a weird time of the season. The Nuggets have only had one game in the last eight days, just because the NBA Cup. Again, if we would have just beat the Spurs, we could have been a part of that NBA Cup. But maybe some rest will do the guys good. And my predictions for these upcoming games, now that we're kind of getting back into a more normal schedule, is Jokic will help us celebrate Jokmas tonight and give us a humongous triple double. Now we kind of get used to his outstanding numbers, and if anyone else would do it, it would be just a career night. So I'm gonna predict an absolutely giant game for Jokic tonight. 40 points, 20 rebounds, 15 assists, happy Jokmasmas. My next prediction will be the Nuggets are gonna go 2-0 against the Rockets. We have two games coming up against the Rockets, both tonight and in a few days. And obviously the Rockets are looked at possibly on the same tier as the Nuggets. Everyone agrees that OKC is at the top, and then right below them is the Nuggets and the Rockets. And this will be a good test for the guys, even though we are still missing Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. I think the Nuggets are gonna go 2-0 and kind of put a little bit of space in between them and the Rockets for that number two seed. So what could go wrong with those predictions? Well, let's review what I got wrong about the last episode. Is it too easy to say everything? Yeah, we'll we'll go into detail. So I predicted that the Nuggets were going to beat the Spurs and join the elimination round in the NBA Cup for the first time. I was dead wrong. Even though the Spurs were missing Wimby, we could not beat them at home. I don't know what's going on with our home games. But like I said, I think it's good. It sounds like the interviews coming out of practice are the Nuggets are really enjoying the rest. Even though it's somewhat early in the season, I think those guys enjoy the rest whenever they can get it. And hopefully they won't come back rusty in these next couple games against the Rockets. Hopefully they will be rested, recharged, and ready to go. Now, I also predicted that the Nuggets would lose to either the Pacers or the Hornets, because that's just what the Nuggets do. And I was wrong, which is a pleasant surprise. Nuggets, like I said, have an 11-game road winning streak, and they were able to beat both the Pacers and the Hornets. And it's just it's it's refreshing. The Nuggets, really for the entire Jokic era, have always lost some of these random road games to these bottom seller East teams, and there's really no explanation for it except for the guys just don't put in full effort or just don't really care about that game. And as I mentioned earlier, Jokic keeps calling this team professional, and I think a big part of that is our bench. Jonas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, they're all veteran guys that just come in and play the right way, and our bench is not giving up huge runs like they used to. And it seems like they they have that professionalism to them where every night they are going to play the same way, whether they're playing OKC or they're playing the Hornets. And it's refreshing. It's nice. It's like, oh, this is what a basketball team should do when you're really good. And so I hope they can continue that on. And like we only have a few more weeks until Aaron Gordon and Christian Brown get back. And I'm excited to see what a fully loaded Nuggets team can do because I think they're really establishing themselves as the second best team in the league. Now, I always include ways to be a better fan to end these episodes, and I'm kind of excited about this one because I had heard about this guy, but I had never seen it for myself. And the person I'm talking to, I apologize, I meant to look up the name before recording and I did not, but it is the Hornets play-by-play announcer. Now, I know this is very random, but if you love basketball, try and watch a Hornets game sometime with their local team. And the reason this is so fun is because both their play-by-play and and their analyst are really positive about both teams. I was just really impressed with how they would compliment the Nuggets, but also cheer for their their hometown team. They were very knowledgeable about the Nuggets, and it was just refreshing. I guess I don't want to say anything bad about the Nuggets announcers, but they 95% of the time will talk about the Nuggets, and then the other percent of the time just kind of complain about the referees. You hardly ever hear them tell interesting stories about the other team. They may throw in a few little factoids that are just very basic that were probably in the media guide. And the Hornets announcers, it was just kind of a breath of fresh air that you could tell they love basketball. They were just excited just about good plays on either side. And it was really fun to listen to because the Hornets play-by-play guy gets so excited about good plays for the Hornets, but also for the Nuggets. Like Jokic had some easy baskets where he was just kind of doing his spins and just kind of making the other guys look foolish, and the guys loved that. Jamal Murray was having an amazing game. He had 23 points in the first quarter, and they were just gushing about Jamal Murray. But the two plays that stuck out were I I had never heard a man scream like this before, but Miles Bridges had a dunk, and the announcer just went nuts. He was like a fan. I loved it. It was so fun to watch. And then the other one that stuck out was if you haven't seen Spencer Jones on the Nuggets shoot the basketball, it is quite unusual. He sticks his hip way out for no reason, and it's kind of like a sidewinder. And the Hornets announcers had obviously never seen this before because they were kind of mid-sentence when Spencer shot a three, and the Hornets announcer was just like, oh, oh, like he he didn't know what to do. Like he had never seen such a shot before, and it just made me laugh so much that he he he doesn't try to hide what he's thinking. He's just like just spouting out what like if you're watching a basketball game with a friend. So as you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game with him. And if you love basketball, please take the time to watch a Hornets game sometime. Alright, that's all I have for you today. Like I said, it's been a little bit of a downtime for the Nuggets, getting some rest. Hopefully, we will see some energy coming back out of this little break. And happy Jokmas, everyone. Celebrate today. It is a Nuggets holiday. Thanks for listening.

unknown: 13:27

Bye.