The Denver Nuggets secured a hard-fought win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, with Nikola Jokic once again anchoring the offense. While he played a crucial role, one of his teammates delivered an outstanding performance of his own.

In the vast majority of the Nuggets' 50 regular season wins—and their six postseason wins thus far—the club won because of three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. On Friday night, the Nuggets won in spite of The Joker.

After the worst three-game shooting funk of his career, Denver's Nikola Jokic returned to form with a 44-point effort Tuesday night in Game 5 -- but it wasn't enough as OKC took the lead for the first time in this Western Conference semifinals series.