DALLAS — Nikola Jokic watched from the bench as the final seconds of a deflating 118-107 loss to the Dallas Mavericks ticked away on Tuesday at American Airlines Center. Jokic was seated near the end of the row of chairs. He wore his blue warmup top. A white towel was draped over his shoulders.

Denver’s star center didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter as Denver tried to erase a double-digit Dallas lead. Jokic’s night was done when Mason Plumlee checked in for him with 3:38 in the third quarter. He exited the game with four points on 2-9 shooting and never returned. He could only sit and watch as his team’s playoff chances suffered a severe blow.

“Coach’s decision,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said when asked why he benched arguably his best player down the stretch.

The Nuggets could’ve completed a perfect 3-0 road trip with a win over the Dallas Mavericks, a team whose owner last month got fined $600,000 for saying “losing is our best option.” Instead, they boarded a flight to Denver feeling down on themselves.

“Losing is one thing,” Malone said. “You’re going to lose some games. You’re going to get beat. Guys are going to get hot. But tonight’s loss does not sit well with me at all. There’s just an underlying current to our team right now that I’m just not happy about.”

The margin for error in the Western Conference playoff race is razor thin. Four games separate eight teams vying for six spots. Losing to an NBA bottom feeder, as Denver did Tuesday, could prove disastrous.

The Nuggets had an opportunity to take advantage against the lottery-bound Mavericks. But then Yogi Ferrell went for a career-high 24, 39-year-old Dirk Nowitzki scored 17 and Dallas sunk 15-27 threes.

“My message was very simple: ‘Tonight was unacceptable. You have 19 games to go. And effort, care, those things should never be talked about right now.'” Malone said. “I thought we had a couple guys tonight … it’s one thing to miss shots and make mistakes. It’s another thing to go out there and go through the motions. I don’t think we can have that right now. Each game, each quarter, each play, each possession is way too important.”

Malone refused to call anyone out by name. But it was noticeable when Denver tried to complete its fourth-quarter comeback with Jokic on the bench.

“I don’t know what to say,” Jokic said about not playing in the fourth. “I think it’s a normal thing. It was a coach’s decision.”

Malik Beasley, Will Barton, Devin Harris, Trey Lyles and Mason Plumlee were on the floor when Denver got within five points with 6:44 to play. The Nuggets wouldn’t get any closer than that, though. Neither Jokic nor Jamal Murray played in the game’s final 12 minutes.

“We were playing hard. Guys were playing hard,” Jokic said. “I think when we were supposed to have runs, we didn’t have them. They just kept up the lead. We just couldn’t get back.”

Jokic scored in single figures for the third game in a row. After a monster February, he’s struggled to get going in March. His numbers in the four games since Millsap returned from a wrist injury — 10.0 points (40.7 percent FG), 7.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists — are nowhere near his season averages. Denver is 2-2 in that stretch.

“Right now, what we’re playing for isn’t one individual,” Malone said. “What we’re playing for is a collective goal we talked about back in September in Boulder, Colorado. Obviously, each guy who is called upon as a starter or off the bench has a responsibility to the man next to him to go out there and give it his all. Right now, if you’re not going to go out there and give it your all, you’re not going to play.”

Malone’s comments came 11 days after Jokic submitted a 28-point, 11-assist, 11-rebound masterpiece in a win over the San Antonio Spurs. After that game, Malone declared Jokic belonged “in the MVP conversation.”

During the final seconds in that Feb. 23 win, Jokic was also watching from the bench as the final seconds ticked off the clock. That was only because he fouled out with 1:46 play. On Tuesday, Jokic sat and watched at the end due to entirely different circumstances.