Nikola Djokic acknowledged how good the OKC Thunder did while trying to protect him.
The Oklahoma City Thunder reunited the Denver Nuggets with the series. The series is 2-2 and they return to Oklahoma for a key game 5.
Jalen Williams won many of the praises for his defensive performance. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was called a foul artist by David Adelman for a 25-point outing.
One man who had a struggle in Game 4 was Nicola Jokic. The Big Man went 7-22 off the field and spent another poor shooting night.
Adelman wasn’t too worried after Jokic’s struggle in Game 3. And Jokic actually gave credit for the thunder for the defense they played against him.
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Nikola Djokic spoke after the Nuggets’ Game 4 defeat. He admitted that the OKC Thunder players do a very good job defending against him.
The Serbs admitted that rather than doing one thing, the Thunder did many different things to abandon him and force him to make a bad shot.
“I mean, that’s just a little bit of everything. They have really good defenses on me… my body, my handicap, my physical, and I think I missed it like two or three open looks tonight.
“They’re shrinking the ball, they’re shrinking the floor for me, they have a guy behind the defenders, so that’s a little bit of everything, you know.
“Of course we need to do a better job, but it’s part of the game.”
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Nicola Jokic’s last two performances were not desirable for the Denver Nuggets. They ran off with it in Game 3 and it cost them Game 4.
In his last three games, Jokic shot 33.0% off the field and 18.2% above Arc. This level of efficiency is not what we’ve come to expect from three MVPs.
If the Nuggets were to qualify, they would need a version of Nikola Jokic, who performed extensively in Game 1, making him 15-29 off the field, scoring 42 points.
The series isn’t over. The Nuggets show that they can win the game at Thunder’s House. They need to win at least one more to make it happen.