Nikola Jokic got jokes.
The two-time NBA MVP closed out his media availability Thursday at Footprint Center answering a question about the Phoenix Suns having more energy playing at home.
“No my friend, I expect their surrender,” he said with a smile.
Ah, the Joker, but he and the No. 1-seeded Nuggets know the Suns are a “desperate” team going into Friday’s Game 3 at Footprint Center down, 2-0.
“It’s new adversity, it’s all part of the playoffs,” said Suns big Deandre Ayton. Phoenix dropped the first two games of a series for the first time in this three-year playoff run.
“The things are, it’s really enlightened us, you know. Now we got to grind and grind. Now we’re desperate. I kind of like it.”
The NBA team has never come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
“I feel like we’re capable of getting out of this hole,” Suns guard Cameron Payne said. “We’re back home. Our job was to go steal one. That didn’t happen. Let’s handle what we got now. Let’s try to go 2-0 here and deal with what we got to do back in the road.”
Game 4 of this Western Conference semifinals is Sunday in Phoenix.
“We’ve just got to get everybody’s confidence up here in the crib,” Payne continued. “Hope everybody in the Valley comes ready because we’re going to be ready. We need them. I feel like that’ll get everybody going.”
The Suns swept the Nuggets in the 2021 conference semifinals, winning Game 3 and 4 in Denver, on their way to the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets sound as if they’re looking to do the same to Phoenix on their home floor.
“Why one?” said Jokic when asked about stealing a game in Phoenix. “We are going to play our game to win the game. (Friday) is going to be a must-win for us. We have the confidence, we have a lead, we have momentum. We are playing really well.”
If there’s a Game 5, it’ll be Tuesday back in Denver.
“I think our guys are excited,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We all understand in this building with their fans and being down 2-0, we expect a tremendous effort from them, but I think just like last round against Minnesota, our guys are looking forward to that challenge and understand we have to play better than we did at home.”
Denver won Game 3 against the Timberwolves to take a 3-0 series lead in the first round. Minnesota took Game 4 at home, but the Nuggets responded by winning Game 5 in Denver to advance.
Now they’re looking to take complete command of this series with a win Friday over Phoenix.
“They’re not going to give us Game 3,” Malone said. “They’re not going to give us Game 4, they’re not going to give us the series. We have to take it and that’s our mindset right now. Come in here and take it because nothing is going to be given to us as we move forward.”
The fourth-seeded Suns will be without starting point guard Chris Paul, who is listed out with a left groin strain suffered in the third quarter of Monday’s 97-87 Game 2 loss.
Paul didn’t practice Wednesday or Thursday after the Suns took off Tuesday.
“It’s always tough missing a guy like that who can do multiple things on the floor,” Suns superstar forward Kevin Durant said. “We’re going to have to do it as a group.”
Payne is going into Game 3 with the mindset that he’ll start in place of Paul.
“He just told me to be ready,” Payne said about Paul.
Whoever starts at point guard for Paul, along with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant will be called upon even more, whether it’s scoring or playing – or most likely both and even more.
“That’s what we get paid to do,” Durant said. “Whatever is required of us. You got to play more minutes, take more shots, you’ve just got to do it.”
They’ve already accounted for 118 of Phoenix’s 194 points in this series.
“It’s putting more on all of our plates,” Booker said. “That’s part of playoff basketball. That’s part of the NBA is control what you can control. We all wish injuries weren’t a part of it, but it is. The teams that can sustain that and adapt under those circumstances tend to do better.”
Denver is anticipating “more KD and more Booker” as Jokic put it.
“‘The ball will be in Devin Booker’s hands more than we saw in the fourth quarter at our place in Game 2,'” Malone said. “… We know it starts and ends with Devin and Kevin and we have to continue to lock in on those guys and make it as hard as possible.”
In turn, Phoenix must find an answer for Jokic, who is averaging 31.5 points, 17.5 rebounds and five assists so far in this series. He’s coming off a 39-point, 16-rebound effort in Game 2.
Sounds as if Ayton is more focused on guarding Jokic and making him work on the defensive end than the officiating going into Game 3.
“Me guarding him straight up like I how I used to in the past,” said Ayton, who has picked up nine fouls in two games this series. “I know the things I need to do to get him to use a lot more energy.”
Averaging just 14 points and 7.5 rebounds in this series, Ayton ran the floor better in Game 2 compared to Game 1, but still realizes he must play with a level of physicality against Jokic.
“Just boxing out more,” Ayton continued. “I don’t think I had my body on him as much. I think I was too worried about the physicality of the game and how the calls were going to be called on me. It gets weird around there knowing the amount of physicality to whether they’re initiating the contact or you’re giving it down there. It gets tricky and he definitely took advantage of the first two games.”
The Suns were called for 25 fouls to 16 for Denver in Game 2. Phoenix finished the game just 5-of-5 on free throws while the Nuggets shot 18-of-21.
“I can’t talk about that,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “You’re trying to push me to get fined. It is what it is. I don’t think anyone has ever seen that. It is what it is. We have to be more forceful as it relates to getting to the basket and creating the kind of contact that will get us to the free throw line. It was a low number. That’s all I can say about it.”
Have an opinion about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns ‘desperate’ going into Game 3 down 2-0 to Nuggets in NBA Playoffs