DENVER — Josh Hart may want to visit a confessional or reconcile with his higher power because his prayers went unanswered.
Asked before Thursday’s game how the Knicks could slow down Nikola Jokic, Hart, the affable forward, offered, “Pray.”
Then Jokic dumped an easy triple-double on the Knicks, recording 30 points with 14 rebounds and 11 assists as the Nuggets sent New York home with a 113-100 defeat.
The Knicks (41-28), who snapped a four-game winning streak while falling behind the streaking Magic to fifth in the East, had no answer and were humbled at the end of an otherwise successful 3-1 road trip.
“He’s the MVP for a reason,” Jalen Brunson said, forecasting an inevitable third award after this season for Jokic.
Not that the Knicks didn’t try in the Mile High City.
As usual, Tom Thibodeau’s squad held on to the rope for as long as possible.
The identity remained intact. Brunson had 26 points and nine assists. Isaiah Hartenstein added 20 points.
But the Knicks uncharacteristically were outrebounded, 42-31, and allowed the Nuggets (49-21) to shoot 53.6 percent,
Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. (31 points, 13 of 16 shooting) were too much.
The Knicks won the minutes he was on the bench, and lost by 30 points in the 39 minutes Jokic played.
“What he does as a 7-footer, he does a good job of getting you off his body,” said Hartenstein, who fouled out in 26 minutes trying to guard Jokic. “I think that’s probably — I don’t think there’s a player like that in the league. As weird as it sounds, normally for me it’s easy to steer guys, kind of get them to where I want them to go to. … You gotta respect him. He does a great job. The way he moves is kind of unique. And he does a great job getting you off his body. So that was the most difficult part.”
Before Jokic’s final substitution into the contest, the Knicks had cut the deficit to two with 8:19 remaining.
Then Jokic returned, the Nuggets went on a 7-0 run, and Tom Thibodeau’s squad was cooked.
The shovel came out after Alec Burks wrapped up Jamal Murray on a Nuggets breakaway, prompting a ‘take foul’ call after a review. Murray buried the foul shot, then Jokic hit an off-balance and-1 layup.
The four-point possession gave the Nuggets a nine-point lead with 5:13 remaining. The visitors never recovered.
“They’re obviously champions for a reason,” Thibodeau said. “I thought we fought hard. Our rebounding wasn’t good throughout the game. I thought offensively the way we started the game was really good. And it’s a two-point game with eight minutes to go in the fourth.”
The deck was stacked against the Knicks. It had the makings of a schedule loss, long before tipoff.
They were eager to get home, finishing off a four-game road trip that spanned 10 days.
They had two days off to prepare but the altitude is a bear for the uninitiated lungs.
Plus, the Nuggets are the defending champs and supposedly motivated after getting smacked by the Knicks in January at MSG.
“When you get your ass kicked by a team, they have our full attention,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said 90 minutes before the opening buzzer.
“We don’t want to get swept by anybody,” he added. “Your competitive juices kick in. We remember what happened in the Garden, and we use that to motivate us.”
The Nuggets also have the greatest player in the world, Jokic, who the Knicks understood was going to be a handful.
“He’s just one of those guys you can’t speed up,” said Hart, who struggled with just two points in 36 minutes. “You play tough defense, and he throws up some majestic 35-footer and somehow makes it. It’s just one of those guys where it’s tough to slow him down and influence him. Obviously, we just have to be physical and have great ball pressure on him.
“Then pray.”
The prayers didn’t work.
