Nikola Jokic has to wear the most embarrassing loss of his career.
DENVER — Every NBA great has at least one truly embarrassing loss on their resume. Michael Jordan against the “Jordan Rules” Detroit Pistons. LeBron James against the 2010 Boston Celtics at the end of his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Magic Johnson against the 1981 Houston Rockets, falling way short of a surprise title defense. It doesn’t matter how exceptional you are. Eventually, you can’t avoid that one glaring blemish people will never forget.
For Nikola Jokic, it might be the 2024 Minnesota Timberwolves.
Monday night was a must-win game for the reigning NBA champions. The math on teams winning a playoff series after falling down 2-0 is so short, but it’s not impossible. The math on teams advancing after losing the first two games at home?
We’re almost talking about seeing Haley’s Comet again before that happens.
Yet, despite the situation, despite his knowing that Jamal Murray is nowhere near full capacity with a calf strain, necessitating that Denver somehow get more from its likely three-time MVP, Jokic laid a massive egg on national television. Sixteen points. Thirteen shots (just five in the first half). Four turnovers. Against a relentless and confident Minnesota squad that is tailor-made to stop him — that played without likely four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert — Jokic wilted at the first sign of adversity.
He took one punch, checked out, and so did the Nuggets in defeat.
Jokic’s postgame press conference trying to diagnose a 26-point loss that never felt all that close didn’t help matters. He sure sounded defeated.
When asked to clarify his Game 1 comments about how “losing doesn’t motivate him,” Jokic took a long, awkward pause before eventually settling on winning actually, in fact, motivating him. Sure. Later, he couldn’t pick a concrete answer for why the Timberwolves, who look like the NBA Finals favorite after a 6-0 start to these playoffs, have had him and the Denver offense so stymied.
“Maybe we are trying too much just by driving into a lot of people,” Jokic explained. “I think we can help each other, just trust the pass a little bit more. But one part is they are physical, and they make you play that way.”
It didn’t get much better. When asked about how he expects his team to respond from its disastrous 0-2 hole for Friday night’s Game 3 in Minneapolis, Jokic shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“I don’t know. We will see.”
Jokic is going to wear Monday night for a long time. Unless Denver achieves the unfathomable and somehow takes four of the next five games to beat these ravenous Timberwolves, there is no other reasonable conclusion. These kinds of disinterested, frustrated efforts do not fade into obscurity from the mind of your average NBA basketball aficionado. They are the types of losses that linger and make you question everything you thought you knew about an all-time great.
“Yeah, he got that title, BUT maybe he really could be victimized in the pick and roll.”
“Yeah, he won three MVPs, BUT that one game against the Timberwolves. Woof.”
“Yeah, he’s a great leader, BUT it sure seems like he did sometimes quit when his team needed him.”
It’s unfair, given the status of Murray’s health (and other questions) on an already thin Denver roster, but that’s the deal when you’re the star player. This is the unofficial contract the “best player in the world” signs. Either come through for your team at all costs, or wear the embarrassment for everyone to see. It’s never been about being fair.
Minnesota’s leader, Anthony Edwards, wasn’t convinced Jokic and the Nuggets are quite down and out after Monday night’s humiliation.
Right now, he might be the only one who still thinks so.
“That’s the defending champs over there,” Edwards said. “They’re not gonna come out and play like that again. We gotta be ready to take their punch.”
