Paul Klee: Why Nikola Jokic's big brain is the beautiful mind of the NBA Finals

Jun. 8—MIAMI — Nikola Jokic's big basketball brain is the beautiful mind of the NBA Finals.

"He sees things before they happen, a step ahead of most people," Nuggets coach Michael Malone told me inside the downtown Kaseya Center ahead of Game 4 Friday night.

What has been missing from the paralysis by analysis leveled at Joker's game in the playoffs?

Jokic has a supercomputer for a brain. Part Peyton Manning, part Bobby Fischer, he unlocks a basketball game with his noggin as much as his passing, rebounds or "Sombor Shuffle."

Why does Joker adore the mental aspect of a playoff series as it moves forward into Games 3, 4, 5 and beyond?

"It's like a brain game, like a chess game. They are one move, we are another move," he said Thursday. "I think this is the time where players show what they've got."

A running joke within the Nuggets organization is how Joker is good at everything he attempts — basketball or otherwise. Teammates and front-office personnel are game to challenge the big fella at cornhole, ping pong, darts, video games or cards. Jokic inevitably is the victor.

The Nuggets hold a 2-1 series lead over the Heat. Ask them what's clicked for the core of twenty-somethings, they sound like a bunch of 10-year-olds nerding out on "Fortnite: Hoops."

"We're all having fun trying to solve the puzzle," Jamal Murray said.

Once the Nuggets had a roster as talented as the NBA's best, they graduated to making it the smartest. They talk in terms of "puzzles," "solutions," "problem solving." The talent's given.

The synergy between Jokic and Murray works because they are two smarty pants who operate on the same intellectual playing field. Their playing style is like the labyrinth board game you toggle left and right to prevent a marble from falling down a hole. Not too fast, not too slow, reading and reacting.

"Fun way to play basketball," Murray said.

Over 12 million viewers saw Game 3. They witnessed a melding of minds between Jokic and Murray, the first teammates to each score a triple-double with at least 30 points apiece. Ever.

After the Heat stumped the Nuggets with a riddle in Game 2, the Nuggets went into their big basketball brains and solved the equation in Game 3, 109-94.

Murray is a firm believer in the power of meditation, going as far to ask equipment manager Gene Sanchez which jerseys are up next so Murray can imagine himself making a shot or recovering from a mistake clothed in that particular colorway.

"I also envision reactions," Murray said. "Like, if I miss a shot, what is the first thing I'm thinking about?"

It takes a brain to know one.

This postseason has been Joker's Rubik's cube. To every twist he had a turn. Minnesota threw the kitchen sink at Jokic, from 7-footer Rudy Gobert to forward Kyle Anderson. Jokic scored 43 points as the Nuggets lost Game 4, and he turned in a triple-double to close the series in 5.

He averaged 34.5 points, 13.2 rebounds and 10.3 assists in five games against 7-footer Deandre Ayton and Phoenix. The Lakers tried Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura on Joker.

Sweep.

"Whether the double team is coming from the bottom or the middle, single coverage to a side, it doesn't matter. He'll figure it out," Murray said.

Jokic sees things before they happen.

"No matter what is thrown at him, he has an answer," Malone said.

Joker's answers come from feel as much as film. That was true on defense in Game 3, when Jokic contested a game-high 21 shots. Heat center Bam Adebayo was 1-for-10 with Jokic as his primary defender. The Heat were 3-for-19 on shots when Joker eschewed social distancing.

"I think I didn't affect them at all, to be honest," he said Friday.

I once asked former Nuggets executive Arturas Karnisovas, a central figure in the Jokic draft, what traits they hunt when scouting prospects: "Everything they do must be elite," he said.

"If you are just as specialist, we are not for you," Malone said Thursday.

That includes an elite ability to think the game and process the action in real time. You'll notice a rare frustration from Joker when a teammate misses an assignment. It's like a school kid who's already memorized his multiplication tables, so why are we going over them again?

Joker would sooner spend a year away from his beloved horse stable than answer another question about his NBA-record 10 triple-doubles in a single postseason.

"In Europe, it's maybe a little about the team, the winning," he said. "Here it's winning, too, but maybe more (about) stats."

I asked Joker what he enjoys about the cerebral aspect of a playoff series, solving the problem.

"I think it's cool just to see different solutions, how players think different, how some players react in certain ways, how some players don't react," he said. "Especially now, like you remember, they blitz(ed) us a couple times and they steal the ball. Then we reacted good."

For the NBA's beautiful mind, problem solved.

Two equations to go.