When it was finally over, and the Nuggets had won a playoff series for the first time in a decade by beating San Antonio 90-86 Saturday night, center Nikola Jokic was so tired he could not take another step. Too pooped to raise a fist much less pump it, Joker put hands on his knees near center court, bent over at the waist and allow the happy noise wash over him.

Jokic fought for his right to a basketball celebration in Denver, then was too tired to get up and dance. How did he fatigue to take the team on his back and battle through the pain?

“It’s Game 7, guy,” stated Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, answering for his teammate.

“Being tired, being in some pain it s part of the business,” Jokic added. “You will need to fight through, especially in this moment. It’s Game 7. You’rsquo & ve got to do what you. ”

And what Jokic did to the Spurs was something else. “Magnificent,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said.

Jokic summoned his inner Oscar Robertson, by scoring 162 points, catching 85 rebounds and dishing 64 assists in the seven games of his first postseason appearance. Every last one of those gaudy numbers were necessary to eliminate San Antonio.

“It’s not something I live for,” Jokic said. “It’s only stats. ”

No big deal, right?

“It’s just basketball,” as Jokic likes to say.

But what Joker has done for Denver cannot be measured by statistics.

A much better indicator of his impact? The wall-to-wall, fourth-quarter noise within the Pepsi Center, where four years ago, this group was so unloved, that as guard Gary Harris recalls it: “There was nobody in the stands. We could barely get anyone in the (lower) bowl. ”

What Jokic has done is give rebirth to a basketball franchise.

What a long, strange trip it s been. The Nuggets were princes in this town. But Chauncey Billups grew older and Carmelo Anthony wanted out and George Karl got fired.

It was cooler to hate on the NBA team than to cheer it. Remember?

“For many years, we didn&rsquo. To see them stick behind us in Game 7 is amazing,” Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said.

“It was a slow build. And without ownership’s patience, we wouldn’t have managed to construct it. Win or lose in Game 7, against such a storied San Antonio franchise with the best coach I would have been proud of how we performed in the NBA. But it was a great deal more enjoyable, because we won. ”

The Nuggets never trailed in this match that was win-or-go-home, but nobody in the arena dared to relax until the final buzzer. At the end, it was so loud in the arena you couldn’t least of all San Antonio forward LaMarcus Aldridge. He lost track of time and score, as Popovich pleaded to foul Jokic, with the final seconds of the quarter.

“I didn’t hear him,” Aldridge said. “The crowd was loud. ”

For the first time in quite a long timebasketball is loud and proud in Denver.

It had been a generation since the Nuggets won a Game 7, so what mile-high anxiety it could be was forgotten by this town.

“Anxiety,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “That’s a good word for it. ”

Possibly the deepest angst of this series resulted from watching these young Nuggets climb the steep learning curve of playoff basketball, with slips the false starts and drawbacks.

Growing up isn’t easy to do.

“That’s true, because there’s no way to expedite the expansion process,” Connelly said.

“In the playoffs, there’s no way to just tell a team: ‘Just do it. Don’t be dumb. Don’t be nervous. ’ As much as trainer (Malone) provides the staff every positive message and every kick-in-the-butt message he could, you’ve got to allow the players go out there and dance sooner or later. ”

Sometimes in this show, Denver couldn’t shoot straight. For example: In Game 7, the crowd cringed as the home team clanked 18 of 20 attempts.

But this team refused to fold, even as San Antonio cut Denver’s lead from a comfortable 13 points at the outset of the fourth quarter to an anxious two points before Murray sank a 14-foot floater with 36.8 seconds remaining the match.

These aren’t your father’s Nuggets, those he cursed as losers. This group was reborn in the image of the Joker. Theyrsquo;re winners. And that ain’t no joke.

On this Saturday night, the night of basketball in Denver in at least a decade, Jokic was too tired to dance in success. No problem. The crowd of 19,725 at the Pepsi Center got up and danced .

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