As things stand, the Nuggets trail the Thunder 3 games to 2 in their Western Conference Semifinal matchup. Denver has played about as well as anyone could reasonably expect, and new interim coach David Adelman has been able to do more with less, getting great effort from his team, especially on the defensive end.
But right now, if there’s a big story or takeaway from the Nuggets’ side, it’s been the play of the non-Nikola Jokic players. Jokic has been generally outstanding in this series, as he has twice gone over 40 points, with very solid defensive work, and he’s tasked with trying to do it all on the offensive end.
The Thunder are doing a nice job of containing Jokic, and they’ve held him to three relative off-nights, but when push comes to shove, Jokic has been awesome, and almost single-handedly willed his team to a massive Game 3 victory.
Unfortunately, the single-handed nature of the game was also the biggest problem for Denver, as nobody else showed up to support the 3x MVP. Jamal Murray was the only other Nugget to score more than 13 points in Game 5, and he did it on inefficient high volume, while disappearing in the fourth quarter.
Non-Jokic Nuggets shoot 1-15 in 4th quarter
The shortcomings of the Nuggets were on full display in the 4th quarter of Game 5. Denver led by 8 points going into the biggest quarter of their season, but got outscored in the frame 34-19 by OKC, as they potentially saw their best chance to win the series slip away.
Jokic kept up his brilliant play, scoring 13 points in the final quarter on 4-6 shooting and doing everything he could to keep the Nuggets in the game. The problem was that everyone else on the roster wasn’t able to chip in much at all.
The rest of the team combined to score just 6 points total in the 4th on a paltry 1-15 shooting and didn’t hit a 3-pointer. The offense completely cratered around the Joker and let him down at the worst possible time.
If things don’t turn around in this series, sadly, this is going to be the lasting image of every Nugget but Jokic missing shot after shot while the Thunder walked down a big lead and blew a very winnable series with Jokic playing at the peak of his powers.
It has never been clearer that this roster needs changes this offseason. They need more options off the bench and more two-way players who can guard and hit open shots. David Adelman is coaching with one hand behind his back at this point, and it’s not fair to him.
The fact that the Nuggets could still pull out this series is a testament to him, to Jokic, and to the players and coaches who are doing everything they can to win these games. But they need help.