DENVER -- NIKOLA JOKIC is sitting on a leather couch in the Denver Nuggets' player lounge, an ice pack attached to his right side.
There's a five-inch scar that runs across the top of his left arm near his shoulder and several other claw marks that come in all different sizes and shades of red. There are some fresh ones from the previous night, when the Nuggets won Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Portland Trail Blazers.
"All year round," he says. "I have a long one here, a really big one from last year.