Underneath the same basket Nikola Jokic rattled with a thunderous dunk that brought down the house, there sat linebacker Von Miller, wearing a No. 15 Nuggets jersey.

In the first row near midcourt, Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon leaned forward in a prime seat, savoring every one of Joker’s 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists as Denver thumped San Antonio 108-90 Tuesday night.

Game knows game. Game respects game.

But you don’t have to be a football or hockey star to appreciate the man who will one day bring the Nuggets the first championship in franchise history.

“M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!” chanted 19,520 happy souls in the Pepsi Center as Jokic stepped to the foul line during the third quarter. He buried both free throws. And the party started in earnest, with Denver well on its way to a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven series, on the verge of advancing in the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

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The Nuggets have San Antonio reeling toward checkmate. How do we know? San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, who has elevated grouchy to an art form, was gracious in defeat.

Although Nuggets coach Michael Malone has gone to great lengths to laud his adversary’s strategic genius, Pop sounds like a chess master who has run out of moves.

“That was my best Bobby Fischer,” joked Popovich, admitting he had no answers for the Nuggets in Game 5. “Tell Uncle Mikey that.”

But want to know the real basketball savant in this series?

It’s Jokic.

“High basketball I.Q.” Popovich said.

While Popovich genuinely meant it as a compliment, hasn’t smart been the word to damn a white player with faint praise, from Larry Bird to Steve Nash? Although Jokic is averaging nearly a triple-double (19.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, 9.0 assists) in the first playoff series of his pro career, the ignorant that seem to scream loudest on the internet also refuse to see his greatness. Nuggets-Spurs series schedule Game 1 : San Antonio 101, Denver 96

: San Antonio 101, Denver 96 Game 2 : Denver 114, San Antonio 105

: Denver 114, San Antonio 105 Game 3 : San Antonio 118, Denver 108

: San Antonio 118, Denver 108 Game 4 : Denver 117, San Antonio 103

: Denver 117, San Antonio 103 Game 5 : Denver 108, San Antonio 90

: Denver 108, San Antonio 90 Game 6 : Denver at San Antonio, 6 p.m. Thursday, TNT/ALT

: Denver at San Antonio, 6 p.m. Thursday, TNT/ALT *Game 7: San Antonio at Denver, TBD April 27, TNT * If necessary

“I don’t know how you miss him. You miss the big, white guy in the room. He is a great player. You hear everybody talk about all these other players, rightfully so. The league is filled with great players. But what Nikola is doing in his playoff debut has not happened very often in the history of this game,” Malone said.

It’s impossible to ignore the big, white elephant in the room. Jokic is among the league’s five best players in 2019, regardless of race.

“I hope … that people are tuning in and watching us, and saying: “Man, this kid Nikola Jokic is for real.’ We know it, and I think it’s about time everybody else start to realize it,” Malone said.

Yes, the Joker is as slow and gooey and white as Elmer’s glue. But Joker has turned into the molten fire that swept away any notion his teammates could use youth as an excuse for an early playoff exit.

“Sometimes you get lost in the numbers. A lot of the analytical people out there love Nikola, because he’s an analytical dream,” Malone said. “But what’s really impressed me beyond the numbers and the stats has been that competitive fire, that toughness, the not backing down. He’s shown true grit.” Related Articles Nuggets coach Michael Malone explains the shared trait between Jamal Murray, LeBron James and Chris Paul

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When the all-league teams are announced, it will be interesting to see if Joker’s lack of muscle tone and negligible jumping ability downgrades him from a spot in the all-NBA starting five, alongside James Harden and Kevin Durant. And wouldn’t that be a rich injustice, considering nobody plays a more beautiful game than the Nuggets’ franchise player?

It doesn’t help that in the age of Instagram, Jokic is also a terrible self-promoter.

“I don’t usually talk much,” Jokic said.

But, in this game, when Denver declared to San Antonio who’s the boss, he was unusually loud.

“Yelling at everybody — ‘Rebound! Box out!’ — whatever was on my mind,” Jokic said. “I was just yelling. Just to make some noise.”

What’s the secret sauce that makes the Joker so great?

He has the uncanny ability to make everybody else feel like a hero.