With the Denver Nuggets being blown out by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 6, head coach Michael Malone decided to sub out Nikola Jokic with just under 10 minutes remaining. Jokic only momentarily sat on the bench, though, and was seen standing, for the most part. Postgame, the 29-year-old was asked why he did that.
“Just to be warm so I can lift after,” Jokic said.
(starts at 0:55 mark):
In case you missed the game, you can see Jokic standing on the sidelines below, with quite a serious expression on his face.
Nikola Jokic was standing throughout the entire 4th quarter.
This is lowkey the scariest I've seen him. pic.twitter.com/KBmabbWwvV
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) May 17, 2024
While Jokic might have done some lifting after the game, I think he was standing there because he was just so utterly disgusted by what had happened on the court. The Nuggets would have advanced to the Western Conference Finals with a win in Game 6 and instead, they were blown out 115-70 by the Timberwolves.
It was the largest margin of defeat in a playoff game in franchise history and Jokic would have been embarrassed to be a part of it. While the six-time All-Star wasn’t at his dominant best in this game, as he recorded 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists, he played far better than all of his teammates.
Jamal Murray had 10 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal, and shot 4-18 from the field. Michael Porter Jr. wasn’t much better, as he put up 8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block while going 3-9 from the field.
In all, Nuggets players not named Jokic shot a combined 17-67 in this contest, which is just terrible. It allowed the Timberwolves to tie up this series at 3-3 and we now head to a do-or-die Game 7 in Denver.
I think Jokic is going to put in a special performance there, but he can’t win that game by himself. The three-time MVP is going to need either Murray or Porter to step up and carry some of the load on offense. I am backing the Nuggets to win, as the game is in Denver, but I can’t say I am 100% confident they’ll get the job done.
Nikola Jokic Joked About The Start Of The Game Not Looking Good For The Timberwolves
With how the first couple of minutes of this game went down, you wouldn’t have thought that the Timberwolves would crush the Nuggets the way they did. Denver was up 9-2 with just over eight minutes remaining in the first quarter and Jokic hilariously brought that up while talking about the game. (starts at the 0:27 mark in the above video):
“Actually, we had them like 9-2 score, right? Fun,” Jokic said. “Didn’t look good for them in that period you know. But since then it was a one-team show.”
It was indeed all Minnesota after that. The Timberwolves went on a 20-0 run to seize control of the game and never relinquished it. The lead was 50 points at one stage as the home team just completely dominated the contest.
It was very early into the game, of course, but you wonder if the Nuggets missed a trick there. Had they stepped on the Timberwolves’ throats and built up a sizable lead early, things might have panned out differently.
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