Knicks offer blueprint on how to stop Nikola Jokic

Nikola Jokic has taken his scoring to a new level this season, averaging career-highs in points (30.0) and 3PM (2.0) while attempting an uncharacteristic 20.0 shots per game.

On most nights, opponent defenses have been unable to contain Jokic from imposing his will in the paint. However, the Knicks may have cracked the Jokic code in their 122-112 win over the Nuggets Wednesday.

Jokic was held to 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting as the Knicks guarded him by committee, with Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa crowding his lanes and forcing him into giving up the ball. The strategy worked so brilliantly that Jokic was held to six assists — his fewest since Dec. 13 — and failed to find his teammates out of double teams like he usually does. He also finished with just six rebounds, his third-fewest in a game this season.

Overall, Jokic shot 3-of-8 when guarded by Towns, 2-of-5 by Achiuwa and 1-of-3 by Bridges, but he was rarely ever defended one-on-one.

Make Jokic work hard on defense   

The Knicks also realized that the best way to contain Jokic on offense is to make him work extra hard on defense. That's why they kept attacking the lane while converting on a whopping 60 paint points and 25 transition points. The latter metric was a byproduct of the Knicks pushing the pace and forcing Jokic to run back in transition, causing him to run out of gas. 

As seen in the clips below, Jokic was a sitting duck whenever Towns or Jalen Brunson attacked the rim. There was another instance in the fourth when Josh Hart faced little resistance when guarded by the Serb.