In the vast majority of the Nuggets' 50 regular season wins—and their six postseason wins thus far—the club won because of three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. On Friday night, the Nuggets won in spite of The Joker.
The Nuggets star center struggled with his shot—he was 8-for-25 from the field and 0-for-10 from three-point range—and turned the ball over eight times. If you're looking for a snapshot of just how poor of a game this was for Jokic, look no further.
Jokic career-lows tonight:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 10, 2025
— Worst TS% in a playoff game
— Most turnovers in a playoff game
— Most missed threes in a playoff game
— 2nd most missed shots in a playoff game
and the Nuggets won the game. pic.twitter.com/lS6iqsccgZ
And Jokic didn't need anyone to tell him how badly he played. In fact, speaking to reporters after the game, Jokic dubbed himself the "worst player on the court."
"...They're aggressive, they're physical, they're handsy," Jokic said of what the Thunder were doing to bother him defensively. "They're playing passing lanes. I mean, I don't know what they were doing, because if I know, I'm not having those kinds of mistakes. I need to figure out what they're doing.
"Basically, I was the worst player on the court today. But we won the game. And that's most important."
It wasn't all bad for Jokic. He pulled down 16 rebounds, handed out six assists and tallied a pair of blocks and steals. He also was, somewhat surprisingly, a plus-5 for the night.
But for Denver, it was largely the other guys who stepped up, including guard Jamal Murray (team-high 27 points), forward Aaron Gordon (22 points and a clutch game-tying shot) and forward Michael Porter Jr. (21 points).
"AG [Aaron Gordon] had a really big three, " Jokic said. "AG had really big free throws. Jamal was amazing the whole game. Mike had a big corner—not corner—45-degrees right slot area three. So it was really a team effort but I think defense was something that stood out the most."
The win gave Jokic and the Nuggets a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 of the conference semifinals tips off on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
More NBA Playoffs on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Nikola Jokic Harshly Summed Up His Performance in Nuggets Win vs. Thunder .
