LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. The rain fell and the Joker burst. The end of this humiliating 124-87 playoff loss to Utah on Friday was a sad scene, painted in gray tones of regret. As rain puddles formed on sidewalks outside the arena, the Nuggets’ season began to creep in.
For the first time in his remarkable, young NBA career, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic faces a major disappointment.
In a playoff game that Denver desperately needed to win, Joker was 7 feet tall and almost invisible.
Skinny Joker was shot through Utah center Rudy Gobert. How could Jokic look so disconnected, especially in a playoff game with so much on the line?
“That would be a great question for Nikola,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone.
When Jazz center Rudy Gobert dominated at both ends of the floor, making 11-of-15 shots for 24 points while collecting 14 rebounds, Jokic stood back and watched.
I never thought of these words, much less typed them: The Joker was a joke.
Heaven forbid if John Elway or Peyton Manning ever piled up a playoff game the way Jokic drops the Nuggets into a sinkhole that feels more muddy than their 2-1 deficit in this best-of-seven series.
Although Jokic finished with a respectable 15 points, he only scored a single goal and took just two shots on the crossbar, this game was all but the pouting, when Utah took a staggering 42-20 lead with seven minutes, 29 seconds left in the second quarter.
Passive Nikola is my Nikola. For much of the opening half, Jokic’s most aggressive move was out of the way of repeated dunks by Gobert.
I asked Joker where his A-game went.
‘I made really good shooters. I just missed it, ”said Jokic. ‘I think (Gobert) is a great defender … He’s a great player. But I think I just missed shots. ”
Gobert has now also scored Jokic’s production better than matched in eight of its 17 career meetings, which Utah has won 10 times.
Near the end of the third quarter, Jokic made an unsafe pass to the top of the key. When Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell intercepted the basketball and stepped up for a dunk that put Utah ahead by 30 points, Jokic threw his head back in distress. Jokic had stopped without a fight on the match, as sure as he had given a cover.
I was an eyewitness of this horror, of a socially distant seat in the front row of section 201 inside the Sports House of the Mouse. Even while wearing a mask, it was detecting the stench of Denver’s performance from my seat on the balcony.
This lapside loss, which often seems to be nothing but an endless climax of undisputed 3-point shots and lay-ups by the Jazz, was even uglier to watch in person than on television.
‘How do you know? Have you seen it on TV? claimed David Nakes’ Nuggets, challenging my assertion. ‘It was out of whack. I switched the TV over to a 25 year old episode of ‘Law & Order.’ ”
The game tipped off off shortly after 4 p.m. in Florida. Unlike Jamal Murray, who played like the thought of losing back-to-back games against Utah, made him furious, the Nuggets acted like a bunch of guys who want to go in happy hour for half-price catchers.
Murray was defeated. “I think we have a goal on our backs,” he said several times, with arms defensively across his chest, futylely trying to hide pain in his heart during a postgame Zoom conference.
Their rise to playoff candidate in 2019 was full of hope and optimism, even as San Antonio took them to the limit in the first round. This year it feels different, with Denver loaded with the weight of expectation.
Denver arrived at the NBA bubble more than a month ago, beating up and disintegrating, with preparation time for roughly half of its roster disrupted by COVID-19 problems. The Nuggets handled eight games prior to the playoffs on the Disney campus more than exposition games, with Malone offering every chance of victory by resting his best players in the fourth quarter more than once.
“I think we’re giving up too easily,” Malone said. “Our group needs to become much more mentally tough.”
On a team that has tried to convince itself that this is a legitimate title game, Malone will feel the heat if he does not find a way for the Nuggets to win this series.
To be honest, Denver also found itself 2-1 down in the opening round against the Spurs a year ago, but lost no two games by anywhere near the 56 total points in those two blowouts by Utah.
If the Nuggets have any chance of a comeback, it does not start with coaching strategy. It should start with Jokic declaring himself the best player on the floor.
If the Nuggets can’t find the Joker we know and love, they have no shot.
