Game 4 of the Nuggets-Jazz 2020 1st round playoff series was the lowest point of the Nikola Jokic era.
The Nuggets had just gotten blown out by the Jazz in a 124-87 Game 3 loss. Jokic finished with just 15 points on 6-13 shooting. Then in Game 4, the Nuggets lost again, putting them in a 3-1 series hole. At the time, it felt like an entire era of Nuggets basketball and the future of that team was hanging in the balance.
Of course, Denver roared back in historic fashion beating the Jazz in seven games and staving off the impending roster decisions that the Nuggets would have faced if they had lost that series.
The Nuggets’ Game 2 embarrassment against the Timberwolves may have replaced that moment as a new low.
It wasn’t just that the Nuggets lost, which they did convincingly. Denver was overwhelmed by Minnesota’s defense from the jump. The Nuggets didn’t look ready for the pressure that the Timberwolves applied or the combativeness they played with, even though Minnesota was without Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. The Timberwolves clowned the Nuggets. They made arguably the NBA’s best starting five look like they were playing together for the first time.
It was more so how Denver lost. The Nuggets gave up in this game. Jokic, the NBA’s most consistent superstar who always brings it in the playoffs, had nothing. He looked like he wanted to be elsewhere. In the NBA, you take on the personality of your best player, and that’s what the Nuggets did.
Jamal Murray, who’s playing through a calf injury and other ailments, continued a dreadful playoff run with an 8-point effort on 3-18 shooting. The Timberwolves’ defense has successfully eradicated the Nuggets’ two-man game between Jokic and Murray, which Denver’s offense is built around. It’s led to the Nuggets looking lost and discombobulated in the half-court where Denver has always been bulletproof.
Murray lost his composure too. Amid a disturbing second quarter where the Nuggets were more focused on the officiating than their own issues, Murray tossed a heating pad onto the court while game action was going on. He threw a towel in a referee’s direction a few moments earlier. After arguing with an official, he made a money sign motion with his fingers. He left the arena without speaking to reporters for a second straight game.
The Timberwolves wanted a fight in Game 2. The Nuggets just wanted to go home.
The Nuggets might not just lack the juice, the prowess, and the overall health to win back-to-back championships, but they might not have the character either.
“To win you have to have talent,” Michael Malone said back in October. “To repeat you have to have character.”
We thought the Nuggets had character. This a core whose identity was forged through two 3-1 playoff comebacks in the 2020 playoffs. It’s a team of underdogs, team-first, selfless individuals who play for each other and stand for what’s right in basketball.
In the toughest of times, they don’t split apart. When adversity hits, they don’t back down. They’d never give up like that. The Nuggets’ culture is too strong. They’re not one of those teams. Throughout last year’s playoff run, the Nuggets played with heart and spirit. They were on a mission. We haven’t seen any of that through seven playoff games.
Maybe the Nuggets are tired. Behind the scenes, many around the team were wary of the heavy minutes Denver’s starters were logging throughout the year. The Nuggets’ starting lineup played an NBA-most 958 minutes this regular season. That’s over 250 more minutes than the same starting five played last year and 150 more minutes than the second-most used five-man lineup in the league played this season.
Or maybe, the Nuggets just don’t have it. They might have run into a team that has the size and length and most importantly the hunger that it takes to stop them.
For a team that’s lost its identity, its toughness, and itself, that could be fatal.
