After a loss in Game 3, it’s time for the Nuggets to shut down Jokic
Apr 21, 2022, 11:30 PM
The 2021-22 season has turned into “wait ’til next year” for the Nuggets. Down 0-3 to the Warriors in their first-round playoff series, they’ll turn the page soon.
Most likely it’ll be on Sunday. If not, it’ll be in Game 5 on Wednesday in San Francisco. But it’s coming at some point.
History doesn’t suggest that it’s inevitable. It proves it. In the history of the NBA, teams that have trailed 0-3 in a best-of-seven are a combined 0-143 in those series. They lose. Every time.
To some extent, this seems appropriate. After all, the Nuggets have been all about next year for quite some time.
Heading into the season, Denver knew that this wasn’t a championship season. With Jamal Murray still recovering from a torn ACL, they were just trying to keep their head above water until their star guard returned.
When Michael Porter Jr. was sidelined after nine games, even that seemed like a pipe dream. Down two max players, staying competitive became the goal, even with the reigning MVP on the roster.
Somehow, they did just that. The Nuggets were in the playoff chase, even having a chance at the Northwest Division and home-court advantage in the opening round up until the final couple of weeks of the season.
Nonetheless, they didn’t go “all in” on this year. They were super conservative with Murray and Porter. Neither has returned to the court. Not for a late-season push. Not for the playoffs. They’ve been in street clothes for every game this season.
They also didn’t make any drastic moves. There was nothing splashy at the trade deadline. The Nuggets were content to retain their core, stay patient and wait to see what they can accomplish once they’re on the court together.
They’re one loss away from finding out. The “season before the season” is about to be over with.
That being the case, the Nuggets need to do everything they can to not mess up the plan. They’ve waited this long to find out what they can do in the 2022-23 campaign. The worst possible scenario would be having something happen that derails things.
That’s why the Nuggets should take a drastic step on Sunday. They need to sit down Nikola Jokic.
The center is about to win his second-consecutive MVP. He’s the best player on the team, who carried them to 48 wins this season. But he’s not good enough to get it done alone. Not in the playoffs against a re-energized Warriors team.
Denver is going down with or without Jokic. It’ll simply be uglier if he doesn’t play.
But who cares? There are no moral victories at this point of the season. They don’t hand out style points for going down with a fight.
The only bad thing that could happen in the rest of the series against the Warriors is Jokic getting hurt. That would be an absolute catastrophe. It would be a disaster of epic proportions.
Denver can’t afford to the gamble. They can’t take that kind of risk.
It would be an unconventional move. It would be widely criticized. But it’s the right thing to do.
The Nuggets have seen two years of their championship window get wasted because of Murray’s injury. The moment he went down last April at Golden State, they had no chance of winning a title last year. And without his return this year, coupled with Porter’s injury, they weren’t getting close this season either.
Why take any chance of having next year fall into the same category? Isn’t that why they didn’t rush back Murray and/or Porter this season?
The Nuggets are a hard-luck franchise. Anything that could go wrong seems to go wrong for Denver.
Thus, the prudent thing to do would be to shut down Jokic. Take it out of his hands. Don’t risk an injury.
The No. 1 goal at this point isn’t beating Golden State. It’s not avoiding the sweep. It’s not getting back into the series.
It’s all about having Jokic, Murray and Porter healthy for opening night in six months. Anything that potentially could derail that plan should be avoided at all costs.
It was a great season for the MVP. But it should be over after Thursday night’s loss in Game 3.
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