PHOENIX – Nikola Jokic said one thing. His number said another.

“No,” Jokic answered when asked if he thought playing against former teammates provided an advantage one way or another.

“It’s good to see them, of course.”

The three-time Most Valuable Player saw plenty of Mason Plumlee, Bol Bol, Monte Morris and Collin Gillespie in the Nuggets’ 122-105 win over the Suns on Saturday at Footprint Center. Nick Richards started the game guarding Denver’s lone All-Star, but there were plenty of plays that pitted the Jokic against his former backup, Plumlee.

After getting on the board with a three-point play against Richards, Jokic continued a near-perfect first half with a series of scores against Plumlee in the post. The trend continued when Richards returned to the game. Jokic’s only miss of the first half came in the final seconds.

Plumlee either saw Jokic swish a shot from 75 feet against the Kings last month or saw something similar during his days in Denver, because the Phoenix reserve contested Jokic’s nearly full-court shot in the final seconds of the second quarter. Jokic had the distance dialed in but missed just to the left.

The only other shot Jokic missed came in the middle of the third quarter. He bumped Richards off his spot only for Bol to use his 7-foot-8 wingspan to block the shot. Jokic chased down the loose ball and ended up scoring on the possession anyways. That was his final shot of the night. He made 11 of 13 attempts and finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Another triple-double looked like a lock, but Denver didn’t need him in the fourth quarter to extend its win streak to six games.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone named Jokic the team’s defensive player of the game.

“Nikola was, once again, outstanding,” Malone said. “I thought his levels in the pick-and-roll game, he was up all night long. He was outstanding.”

Jokic deflected the praise in typical fashion.

“That’s our defense. That’s what we do, I think,” Jokic said. “I was just doing my job.”

Taking care of business against shorthanded or inferior competition has been an issue for the Nuggets this season. Phoenix didn’t have Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal or Grayson Allen for Denver’s final road game before the All-Star break, but they did have four players who once wore Nuggets uniforms.

“This is like Nuggets South,” Malone said postgame.

“You root for guys that were a part of our family.”

The Nuggets family looks a little different these days, but there’s no hard feelings, even if Jokic’s play suggested otherwise.

“It was really good to see old teammates,” Jokic said.