Brook Lopez almost didn’t play on Tuesday against the Miami Heat. This is after the Milwaukee Bucks big man entered the game with a questionable tag due to a back injury — one that he must have sustained on Monday night as he matched up against Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic all night long.
It was an extremely tough matchup for Lopez, but he did a truly commendable job in holding Jokic down. In the end, the Bucks were able to secure a massive win, 112-95.
Milwaukee Bucks’ Brook Lopez Sounds Off on Nikola Jokic Matchup
After the win, a worn out Lopez spoke to reporters to discuss his individual war against Jokic. The Bucks center had nothing but high praise for the two-time MVP as Lopez sounded off on Jokic’s greatness:
“He makes it tough,” the Bucks big man said after three seconds of exasperated laughing, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “He’s capable of doing everything offensively. He can score whenever he wants to, but he’s so great just because he makes everyone else on the floor better. And he can get get the ball to them whenever and however he wants.“
Jokic finished the loss with 29 points, but he went 13-of-25 from the floor on an uncharachteristically inefficient shooting night. Lopez deserves a lot of credit for that.
Lopez did admit, though, that he had quite a blast matching up against one of the top big men in the game today:
“It is, absolutely. Yeah, it is fun,” Lopez said of the challenge of defending Jokić. “I mean, that’s why we play, that’s why I play. So a night like tonight, absolutely fun.”
You can’t fault Lopez for a lack of competitvive spirit, which is why he absolutely relishes these individual battles against Jokic whenever they come.
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