It takes a spe­cial cir­cum­stance to get a rise out of Nuggets super­star Niko­la Jokic.

He’s faced elim­i­na­tion five times this post­sea­son alone, and all five times the Nuggets have won, with Jokic laugh­ing off the pres­sure as noth­ing more than com­pet­i­tive fun.

“We don’t care,” said Jokic of the ten­sion his team con­tin­ues to ignore. He just enjoys the ride.

His 34-point, 14-rebound, sev­en-assist effort Sun­day ele­vat­ed his fran­chise to a fourth con­sec­u­tive Game 7 and the sec­ond one in a row that would re-write NBA his­to­ry and defy com­mon sense. Their improb­a­ble 111–98 win over the Clip­pers forced a win­ner-take-all Game 7 on Tues­day night.

Either Jokic ris­es to the occa­sion or is unaf­fect­ed by the threat of elim­i­na­tion. In the team’s last five elim­i­na­tion games, Jokic has aver­aged 27.8 points on 55% shoot­ing, 54% from 3‑point range, 10.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists.

But amid Sunday’s dra­mat­ic Game 6 win, Nuggets coach Michael Mal­one saw a pas­sion from Jokic that always burns but rarely erupts. It did Sun­day, as Jokic’s team charged back from a 19-point deficit in the third quar­ter, ulti­mate­ly pound­ing the Clip­pers by a 29-point mar­gin in the sec­ond half.

“My favorite part about Niko­la Jokic – he doesn’t get real­ly excit­ed too often, but when we went on that run, and we were get­ting stops, they were call­ing time­out … we’re mak­ing the right play, the ball was fly­ing, when I see Niko­la emo­tion­al and yelling and scream­ing and pound­ing his chest, I know we’re in a good place,” said Malone.

Jokic isn’t the emo­tion­al touch­stone of the Nuggets. That spot is reserved for Jamal Mur­ray. But when the Nuggets need con­fi­dence, it’s their steady super­star who helps them nav­i­gate deficits, like the three times this post­sea­son they’ve trailed by at least 15 points in elim­i­na­tion games only to win.

“Tonight, Niko­la Jokic was the best play­er in the world,” Nuggets rook­ie Michael Porter Jr. said.

Not to be out­done by a rook­ie, Mur­ray backed up the claim.

“I think he was, too,” Mur­ray said. “I don’t see why not. He’s hit­ting one-legged step-backs, fad­ing away, off one leg with a hand in his face, con­sec­u­tive times. I’d say he’s the best play­er in the world.”

Mur­ray was ref­er­enc­ing the one-legged, 3‑point fade­away Jokic sunk in the first half, and the falling, flail­ing jumper he drained dur­ing the Nuggets’ third-quar­ter stam­pede. While he and his team­mates were pick­ing apart Los Ange­les’ defense on one end, they were cinch­ing tight any offen­sive rhythm the Clip­pers had on the other.

“Even Tor­rey Craig had a cou­ple assists,” Jokic said. “That doesn’t seem, like, usually.”

Before Sunday’s Game 6, Clip­pers coach Doc Rivers wouldn’t even acknowl­edge a ques­tion about Jokic’s care­free atti­tude toward elim­i­na­tion games. To him, it just didn’t compute.

“I don’t think they are loose,” he said.

Not any­more they’re not. Now they’re on the brink of his­to­ry – again.

“It’s just fun when we know that we can do some­thing, “Jokic said. “… When you see that it’s going your way, the rhythm, you had the momen­tum, you get emotional.”

Har­ris’ help: When Gary Har­ris returned late in the first round against the Jazz, it was his defense that helped them win the series. On Sun­day, it was his offense that opened a release valve for Jokic and Murray.

Har­ris buried 16 points with two 3‑pointers, spread­ing Los Ange­les’ defense on the perime­ter and forc­ing dou­ble teams away from the Nuggets’ two stars.

“Any time they put two on Niko­la, they put two on Jamal, that means there’s an open man some­where,” Mal­one said. “And the only way you’re going to get them out of dou­ble-team­ing is if some­body else steps up and makes a play. In Game 2, our first win against them, Gary Har­ris hit three 3s in the fourth quar­ter, allowed us to get that win. Tonight, I love Gary’s attack men­tal­i­ty. … He had no hes­i­ta­tion on his jump shot.”