The Denver Nuggets suffered their worst playoff loss in franchise history on Thursday, as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat them 115-70 in Game 6. During his postgame press conference, Nikola Jokic claimed it was a “great loss” and the Serb was asked why he felt that way.
“It’s great, they beat our ass,” Jokic said. “They were better than us in every segment of the game and we need to accept it. Take it and just try to be better next time. When you lose by 45, it’s not something (that) happens every day, so just accept it. I’m cool with it.”
That indeed was a good old-fashioned ass-whooping and as Jokic stated, it isn’t something we see every day. The Timberwolves were just flat-out better in every aspect of the game and the Nuggets must take this one on the chin. They need to quickly learn their lessons and ensure they’re better prepared for Game 7.
At first here, you felt the Nuggets were just going to carry on from where they left off in Game 5 when they went up 9-2 in the opening minutes. Then, the Timberwolves went on a 20-0 run and never looked back.
They led by 19 points at the half and were up by as many as 50 at one stage in the fourth quarter. It was just a complete annihilation and something that no one saw coming after the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves three times in a row.
Jokic’s performance was one of the few positives to come out of this loss for Denver. The 29-year-old recorded 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists, and went 9-19 from the field. It wasn’t Jokic at his absolute best, but he was far from terrible.
The rest of the team, on the other hand, shot 17-67 (25.3%) from the field. While the Timberwolves defense was excellent in this game, the Nuggets did miss some open shots too and they’d be hoping those go in, in Game 7. If they don’t, well then I’d fear the worst for them.
Michael Malone On Why The Nuggets Got Their Ass Kicked
Following a loss like this one, you knew Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was not going to hold back. Malone revealed during his postgame press conference that he told his players at halftime why they were getting their ass kicked.
“I told the guys at halftime, I said, ‘Fellas if I would have told you before the game that they’d be shooting 42 from the field and 30 from the three-point line, would you have taken it?’ And they all said yeah. I said, ‘Well, the reason we’re getting our ass kicked is because you’re not taking care of the ball. You’re not rebounding, we’re playing with no physicality and no toughness.'”
(starts at 0:57 mark):
Usually, when we see such blowouts, it’s down to one team shooting lights out, but that wasn’t the case here. The Timberwolves only shot 46.5% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc in the game, but the Nuggets kept shooting themselves in the foot to lose in embarrassing fashion.
Minnesota won the rebounding battle 62-43 and had 19 points off of turnovers while Denver had just three. Combine that with a poor shooting night for Denver and you get a historic loss like this one.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
