Keeler: Thunder’s Alex Caruso manhandled Nuggets in Game 7 — which is why Denver needs two of him

How can Nikola Jokic be expected to cook up a dynasty if he keeps running out of gas?

Alex Caruso plays basketball like he’s trying to score a $50,000 bonus from Dana White. That said, the Nuggets probably could use, at minimum, two of him. Or two more of something relatively close to him if they’re to get the Joker another title in Denver before the horse is out of the barn.

“Alex did a great job,” interim Nuggets coach David Adelman said of Caruso, who attached himself to Jokic’s hip in the paint, scored 11 points, collected three steals and put up a ridiculous plus-40 in the plus/minus column during the Thunder’s blowout victory in Game 7.

“Like I said, (when) I talk about ‘substance,’ that’s what he is. He’s a player (where) the stat sheet doesn’t matter. He impacts winning.”

The Nuggets boast arguably the best pure offensive center in modern NBA history. The part where they’ve been swinging and missing since July 2023 is landing the complementary pieces to help him. The players who make Jokic’s superlative IQ, passing, hands, footwork and instincts look better while simultaneously helping paper over the parts he doesn’t do as well — protecting the rim, for instance.

One way to do that? Add tenacious wing defenders, Caruso types, who can either prevent the rock from reaching the rim in the first place or annoy players to the point where they can’t ever get comfy in the paint should the ball make it through.

As Paul McCartney once sang, there will be an answer — 3 and D.

For the second straight spring, the best “core four” in the NBA got sent fishing by a deeper, fresher roster. Before Sunday, Jokic was averaging 40.5 minutes per postseason game in 2025. Jamal Murray averaged 41.8. Aaron Gordon averaged 38.2. If you’re curious, the Joker averaged 40.2 during the ’24 playoffs. Murray averaged 38.5; Gordon, 37.1. I mean, did we learn nothing from the Minnesota series a year ago?

The ’23 Nuggets, the champs, featured a rotation of eight players who averaged at least 13 minutes per postseason appearance. By last year’s playoffs, that rotation of 13-plus minutes had shrunk to six players.

This year’s Thunder went into Game 7 with eight guys who averaged at least 13 minutes per playoff game. Last spring, same story.

Ditto for the ’23-24 Celtics who won it all. And for the Mavericks they wound up beating in the Finals. It’s not hard to miss the pattern here.

Stars are expensive to keep. Yet top-heavy teams risk running out of juice after 11 or 12 playoff games.

Caruso is old-school in that he plays defense the way John Starks and Anthony Mason did with Pat Riley’s mid-’90s Knicks. Bump, shove, poke, bump, shove, poke. The offensive player either loses his handle or loses his mind and throws a retaliatory elbow — hello, Flagrant 1.

Still, as postseason evils go, agitators are among the most necessary. Once Bruce Brown stuck his head inside the Suns’ huddle in the Western Conference semis three years ago, Phoenix was never really heard from again. Now Brucey B’s an unrestricted free agent. Hint. Hint.

Former GM Calvin Booth claimed he saw this coming and planned to buffer his starting five with young bucks who could do what Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jeff Green did at a fraction of the cost. Because of the massive contracts thrown at Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray, most of those lottery tickets had to hit.