Denver Nuggets talisman Nikola Jokic admitted his shooting struggles led to his team’s 92-87 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Jokic finished with 27 points but was 7-of-22 from the floor. Furthermore, the Serbian missed a pair of free throws when the Nuggets were four points behind with 3:15 remaining.
Jokic came up with a 42-point performance in the series opener, but the three-time MVP has veered off the track as he is shooting 21-of-63 (33.3%) in the last three games.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Jokic, who has a 19-to-23 assist-to-turnover ratio after dishing out a postseason-low three assists Sunday. “They’re playing really good defense on me. They’re really into my body, physical. I think I missed two or three open looks night, so it’s a little bit of everything. They’re shrinking the floor on me. They’re having a guy behind the defender, so it’s a bit of everything. I need to do a better job, of course, but it’s part of the game.”
On the other hand, Gilgeous-Alexander had three buckets in the final 4:36 and he admitted that is imperative for them to close out games in crunch situations.
“I always feel like those are the moments where the guy on the team earns his buck,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting. “You earn your money [when] you close games, you win games, and that’s what everything’s about. And the later you go into season — the better the teams, the closer the games — you need to rise to the occasion.”
Jokic was 2-of-7 from the floor and 1-of-4 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets could not capitalise despite having an eight-point lead.
The fifth game of the series will be played on Tuesday.
