Nikola Jokic is struggling in the series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The three-time MVP seems almost human after dominating opponents at will for years. Will the Serbian find a solution?
We’ve almost gotten used to the fact that Nikola Jokic will find a solution sooner or later. Over the past four or five years, the Serbian has been unstoppable at times and had an answer for every defense. That wasn’t enough for four titles, but pretty much everyone agreed that he was the best offensive player in the world and that Jokic couldn’t be stopped.
This year’s playoffs are a little different. Jokic is scoring as few points as he did in the Corona bubble (24.9 PPG) and shooting as poorly as he did in the playoffs (only 45.5%). In the Conference Semifinals against the OKC Thunder, he is shooting just 39 percent from the field and 21 percent from the three-point line. It’s almost a miracle that Denver has already won two games.
“It’s a little bit of everything. They’re playing good defense against me. They’re using their hands, they’re physical,” Jokic explained after the narrow defeat in Game 4 (87-92), when Denver made just 31.3 percent of its shots. Jokic finished the game with 27 points, 13 rebounds and a playoff-high four steals, but again shot just 7/22 from the field.
Jokic and his problems against OKC
“Sure, I missed a few open shots, but they make the court really small,” Jokic continued. “There’s always another guard behind my opponent, and I just have to get better at that. But that’s part of the game.” That’s all true, but the Nuggets are going to have trouble stealing another game in OKC.
In Game 3, it was other core players such as Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr. who all scored at least 20 points to cover up a weak performance by Jokic, but this will not be the norm, as Sunday confirmed. The MVP had some good spells, but in the fourth quarter, he couldn’t do much. The Joker only made two more shots and also missed two important free throws in a row when they could have cut the lead to two points.
“They have so many athletic defenders and they do it really well,” said Christian Braun, who scored 17 points. Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein are giving their best, and they are constantly getting help from Alex Caruso and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As soon as Jokic puts the ball on the floor, the Thunder machine starts working, forcing the basketball mastermind into bad shots and an unusually high number of mistakes.
Jokic: What’s the solution?
That’s 23 turnovers in four games, compared to just over two on average in the regular season. OKC is putting on massive pressure and betting that Denver won’t beat the Thunder from the three-point line. That’s not the Nuggets’ game either. They score a lot of easy two-pointers and take the fewest three-pointers in the league. But that only works to a limited extent against a historically good defense. Instead, OKC is inviting the Nuggets to let players like Russell Westbrook beat them from the three-point line.
It looked similar in the series against the L.A. Clippers, but Jokic found a way out towards the end by moving more and playing less in the post. Will he find the same counterattacks against OKC, who offer so little space to attack? “Of course Nikola is frustrated by a few things,” said coach David Adelman. “We’re looking at it now and will come up with something.”
What that will look like is unclear. Gordon is playing an outstanding series, and Murray has also improved greatly compared to last year. Denver has few options to do things differently; it will always be the same six or seven players. According to Jokic, one thing will be crucial. “We had our chances, but we didn’t make our shots.”