“I think we just got accustomed to him grabbing so many boards against every single matchup, every single night.”
That was Jamal Murray discussing Nikola Jokic, lamenting the Denver Nuggets losing the rebounding battle in a major way during a close loss against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Nuggets were controlling this game for a while but ultimately lost 118-110.
The reason the Blazers were in the game in the first place? They won the rebounding battle 53-37, including 21 offensive rebounds for Portland compared to 28 defensive rebounds for Denver.
Donovan Clingan, the starting center for the Blazers, grabbing 18 total rebounds and 9 on the offensive end to go with his 17 points and 4 blocks. He controlled the interior of this game, something that doesn’t usually happen when the Nuggets have Nikola Jokic on their side.
“We had a couple of really good possessions, a bunch of really good defensive possessions. And then we just didn’t grab the rebound,” Jokic lamented postgame. “It starts with me, of course, but I think it was a collective effort.”
Jokic, for his part, was still really good, putting up 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists to go with 4 steals and a block. Nobody stuffs the stat sheet quite like him throughout his career, and because he’s so instrumental for Denver in so many ways, it’s easy to overreact when there’s a slippage in production or efficiency.
(Jamal Murray was once again incredible, by the way. He’s held up his end of the bargain to start the season and added 35 points on 19 shots while playing hard defensively and making an impact there.)
So far though, Jokic hasn’t had a defining great game, and his averages of 22.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 9.0 assists are effectively “whatever” numbers for the standard he’s set. The efficiency on the year (47.2 FG%, 22.6 3P%, and 88.5 FT%) is something that more fans are worried by.
Again, the barometer has been set to meteoric for a while, and when it’s not, the panic starts to ensue. Head coach David Adelman isn’t panicking though.
“This is a six-game sample size of one of the most efficient offensive basketball players that’s ever lived. So, you know, I’ll die on that sword.”
The Nuggets have seen the greatness of Jokic’s game for a long time, and they aren’t about to start worrying about him now. They know what he’s capable of, and sooner rather than later, he’s going to have a reminder game, or 17 of them.
But the word Jamal Murray used at the top of this article is the one Nuggets fans should be most interested in: accustomed. Jokic’s rebounding and interior dominance have been unparalleled. In the last five seasons, Jokic has ranked either first or second in defensive rebounds per game.
It’s early, but so far this season, Jokic ranks tied for 11th with 7.5 defensive rebounds per game. That puts him back in the 2020-21 zone before he truly became the most productive center in NBA history.
Answering the question of “why is this happening?” is a bit more complicated. This isn’t just randomness at the beginning of the season. The contested rebounding numbers are down a full rebound per game, and while last night he was battling the NBA’s leading contested rebounder in the 2025-26 season, Jokic was second. He can put up more resistance than he did.
Rebounding isn’t the only area where this is manifesting. Jokic is averaging 1.5 shot attempts per game fewer within five feet from the rim. Free throw attempts are currently down from 7.4 per game last season to 4.3 per game this season. The level of scoring aggressiveness attacking the basket on offense is down significantly, while three-point attempts are slightly elevated (though not tremendously so).
Jokic’s overall usage rate of 26.6% (per NBA.com) is lower than the previous season’s 28.9%. There’s a very clear level of aggression drop-off going on that’s manifesting on both ends of the floor.
So, is that to be concerned about? If the Nuggets want to win the most games in the regular season that they can, the probably. The Nuggets do need to identify other aggressors on their team if they’re going to be ready for the playoffs, but that’s in five months. Right now, they need the most effective team they can get, and for a long time, that has been Nikola Jokic dictating terms around the paint on offense and grabbing every defensive rebound he could.
Is that version of Nikola Jokic gone now? Of course not. It would be ridiculous to think so.
What isn’t ridiculous to think anymore is that the superpowers of Nikola Jokic are starting to show their wear and tear. From the suction cup hands snaring every rebound, to the physical interior battle to create easy shots and generate And-1’s, to the executioner level precision to make exactly the right play at all times. All of those are Jokic’s superpowers, and they haven’t been the same since the start of the year.
Jokic can and will continue to have incredible games. He’s still going to produce ridiculous stat lines frequently and make plays that can only be explained by the warping of space time.
But the Nuggets are starting to get the sense that they have to step up for Jokic, and that simply hasn’t happened in a very, very long time.
Is it too early to be worried about Nikola Jokic? Mile High Sports.
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