What do you say to your teammates after a 34-point blowout loss in the playoffs? In Nikola Jokic’s case, nothing.
The three-time MVP was part of the Denver Nuggets’ 117-83 Game 3 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday — a defeat that puts this season, this series, and perhaps even this era of Mile High hoops on the brink.
Now down 2-1 in the series, the Nuggets are coming off a season that ended with the franchise’s worst-ever playoff loss by margin and a historic 20-point Game 7 collapse. They’ve followed it up with a weak offseason and a late-season firing of the franchise’s winningest head coach — a move questioned for panic over purpose.
Now here we are. One overtime win, one tight home loss, and a soul-crushing embarrassment later. And nothing has changed. This team still lacks juice. They can’t throw the counterpunch that once defined their rise to champions.
Where the Nuggets used to be the ones on the ropes before swinging their way back to glory, against these Clippers ironically, now they’re leaning on the ropes, bleeding clock and belief.
With their backs against the wall — literally — what now? Do they whimper? Do they wallow? Do they fight back?
“I didn’t say nothing,” Jokic said of what he told his teammates after the loss. “I think everybody needs to step up. They were better than us today in every aspect of the game. So we need to be more as a group and to play together and play more like fighter basketball. We cannot back down. We need to attack.”
Coach Jokic has come and gone in just six games. The MVP’s turn into vocal command appears to have come to an end just as we enter the final rounds of the Nuggets season.
The Clippers outshot, out-rebounded, out-hustled on Thursday — and they’re on the verge of ousting the Nuggets from the playoffs. At the very least, they’ve confirmed why so many are out on Denver. Not just now, but going forward — with a superstar over 30 and limited assets in the pipeline, the clock is ticking. The wide-open championship window Denver once had might already be shut.
Fight, attack, say what you will — that might help rookie coach David Adelman push past a team like the Kings. But against the Clippers, the cuts are exposed. This team is short on pieces. Add to that the communication issues, an outdated scheme and a misfit cast.
What once was, clearly no longer is. The Denver Nuggets aren’t a title contender. They’re not close. Frankly, it’ll take a heck of an effort just to reach Round 2.
“We just got to want it. You just got to want it, man. That’s all,” Jamal Murray said, trying to diagnose the Game 3 loss. “I think today they showed they wanted it more. They had an opportunity to take control of the series, and that’s what they did.
“I think if we come out in Game 4 and set the tone, kind of jump the game up a little bit and play the way we want to play, I think we can have the same kind of effect. That’s the playoffs. I’m thankful to have been in enough playoffs now to see series go both ways.”
This series is only headed one way right now, and without the added benefit of a bubble, it’s unlikely the Nuggets can rope-a-dope the same team twice.
“I know we’re capable of getting this win and getting the job done,” Murray said. We just gotta have some urgency, play with some desperation. And it’s OK to have your back against the wall. This is what it’s all about. So I’m excited for Game 4 — it’s really going to put us to the challenge. And I’m always up for a challenge.”
Murray’s words may resonate — his fighter spirit is constant — and maybe that’s what Jokic is looking for. But what the players probably don’t realize yet, because they’re in it, is that while inspiration can strike, it’s going to take something like Ali in the Jungle for them to overcome their problems.
The Nuggets are cornered. Not just in this series, but in their quest to build a dynasty around Jokic. Only the greatest fighters box their way out of a corner, no matter their spirit. Jokic may be one of the great ones. But do the Nuggets have a cut man to clean up this roster? Do they have a trainer who can devise a new strategy?
For now, those answers are “no.” But maybe — just maybe — that changes this summer. A bleak thing to even bring up in the middle of a playoff series.
“I lean on a lot (on my experience), but I mostly lean on it with my teammates, just having been in that situation with them, figuring out all the different challenges with them. I think that’s super key,” Murray said. “Next game is going to be even more important for us to depend on that and have open conversations about what we want to do. And I’m just excited, this is when you need guys to talk to each other and work with each other and work together. So we’re here, back is against the wall, we gotta show up for next game.”
Maybe Game 4 is the start to their last stand. Or maybe we’re already on eight of a 10-count.
