Nikola Jokic recorded his 200th career triple-double on Wednesday night as the Denver Nuggets beat the New Orleans Pelicans 104-91 at Smoothie King Center. Jokic finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, becoming just the second player in NBA history to reach 200 triple-doubles, behind Russell Westbrook's 209 in 18 seasons. It was Jokic's second triple-double of the season, and both have come against New Orleans.
Denver did not need a one-man show to get there. Jamal Murray scored 23 points, Aaron Gordon had 15 points with 11 rebounds, Christian Braun added 12, including back-to-back three-pointers in a late-game stretch, and Trevon Brazile scored 11. All five Nuggets starters finished in double figures.
New Orleans had no answer beyond its star. Zion Williamson scored a game-high 25 points, and Derik Queen posted 11 points with 12 rebounds off the bench, but no other Pelican topped 11 points. The Pelicans fell to 0-4. Jordan Poole also left the game early with an ankle injury, a status to watch with New Orleans hosting winless Sacramento on Thursday night.
Jokic's 200th triple-double is the kind of line that needs no fantasy translation: 21 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists is a start-every-night line, and Denver's balanced scoring around him is why the Nuggets keep winning comfortably. The wire name out of this game is Queen, whose 11-point, 12-rebound night off the bench on an 0-4 team is worth a watch if the Pelicans' rotation shuffles after Poole's ankle scare.
The milestone puts the chase in plain view now. Westbrook sits at 209, and Jokic is nine behind him with the season barely a week old. At this rate the record is not a career question anymore. It is a this-season question.