The Nuggets came up short tonight, despite a Jokic 30-point triple double. This is in large part because of lackluster efforts from Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, and Russell Westbrook in terms of efficiency. Between the three of them, they combined for 13/48 from the field. That’s only 27% from three of the Nuggets top six rotation players. It’s just not good enough. Especially when the team only shot 26.5% from beyond the arc, and couldn’t even crack double-digits in terms of three pointers made.
Jamal Murray and Christian Braun did play up to snuff in some aspects, though didn’t quite crack their recent standards of play. Jamal only had 20 points, albeit on a relatively efficient 9/20 from the field, and 2/5 from downtown. Christian Braun had 13 points on 5/11 from the field, and while he didn’t manage to make a three tonight, he did grab 10 rebounds. Between him, Joker, and MPJ, there were three Nuggets players that managed to grab double-doubles tonight. He also had a monster jam over Brook Lopez that ended up being an and-one. That’s possibly the highlight of the night for the Nuggets.
The game was a back and forth affair, never quite feeling like one team had total control. The biggest lead of the night was taken by the Bucks at 12, but it never felt insurmountable. Especially with Jokic playing as well as he did. If it weren’t for him, it wouldn’t have even been a contest. He was dominant tonight with 32 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists. He shot 13/16 from the field, and was everything the Nuggets needed him to be. Unfortunately, no one else was. Especially MPJ, who outside of the group I mentioned earlier, was 5/22 from the field himself. Just couldn’t get anything going tonight.
With this loss, the Nuggets fall to be the third seed in the Western Conference, and with the season growing ever closer to its conclusion, every game is getting more and more important for seeding. They’ll need those around Joker to step up if they want to secure a top seed for the postseason. They didn’t do that tonight, and now they turn their focus towards a game against the Pistons tomorrow.
