The high-flying Denver Nuggets suffered a stunning 128-123 loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings at Ball Arena on Saturday. While the Nuggets still sit pretty at second in the West with an impressive 12-4 record, Nikola Jokic sent out an interesting message in his postgame press conference.
“I think the 12-4, it’s not the real picture,” Jokic said. “I think we are not that good. I think we need to be much better if we want to do something big. Yes, we’ve played better. We look better. But I think we need to consistently, every night, every possession… Make a mistake. Don’t make a mistake. I’m just going to do something.
“So I think we need to be much better,” Jokic added. “… We need to have a sense of urgency of rebounds, being on the right place, confident shooting the ball, he often just just shoot it. So I think 12-4, I don’t want to say it’s a real picture, but we can definitely be better, and we must be better if you want to do something.”
It appears Jokic isn’t seeing the kind of sense of urgency that he’d like from his teammates. The three-time MVP doesn’t want anyone to get comfortable just because the record is good, as the ultimate goal is to win the championship.
Jokic has been playing championship-level basketball for much of this season, and he had an excellent game against the Kings. The 30-year-old put up 44 points (16-28 FG), 13 rebounds, and seven assists in the contest. That performance looks even more impressive when you consider that the Nuggets were on the second night of a back-to-back and were playing their third game in four days.
You didn’t think Jokic was going to have another monster night when he put up just four points in the first quarter, but he started to play better as the game went on. We saw the very best of the seven-time All-Star in the fourth quarter, as he put up 20 points (7-9 FG) in the period.
A player is supposed to fade in the fourth when they have had a schedule like that, and Jokic was asked where he found the energy to keep his team in the game.
“I mean, it’s a dog fight,” Jokic stated. “You’re just trying to do whatever. You want to win the game. And we had opportunity, we had chances, and then they executed. They scored some big points, and that’s why they won the game.”
Former Nugget Russell Westbrook came back to haunt them here. Westbrook scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 21 points (9-16 FG), six rebounds, 11 assists, one steal, and one block. The Nuggets had told the former MVP in the offseason that they didn’t want him back, and it must have felt good to take them down in this manner here.
The Kings had their way with the Nuggets, in general, in this game. They shot 48-91 (52.7%) from the field, and the hosts certainly missed Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun on the defensive end here.
Jokic, who is averaging 30.4 points, 13.0 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game in 2025-26, might need to put in some more Herculean performances if the Nuggets struggle to this extent defensively without them. We’ll see him and the Nuggets in action next against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum on Monday at 8 PM ET.
