‘I should have shot the floater’: Jokic admits he got it wrong in clutch loss

Jokic passed up a floater, Murray settled — Nuggets' clutch duo went 2-for-12 in the fourth quarter and blew a 19-point lead in a 119-114 Game 2 loss

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Apr 21, 2026, 1:21 AM

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DENVER — You’re reading this right — Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray came up short down the stretch.

The terrific two-man duo, who has led the Denver Nuggets to clutch wins time and time again, faltered in the fourth quarter Monday, dropping Game 2 119-114 to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The pair was a brutal 2-for-12 in the final period, and each made questionable decisions in the final minute with the game in the balance.

What’s worse than the clutch woes may be the deja vu.

It’s the second time in three playoff games against the Wolves over the past few seasons that the Nuggets lost a game after leading by 19 points. It echoed the Nuggets’ 20-point choke job in Game 7 of the 2024 series. Monday’s loss and that Game 7 are the two biggest blown leads in Denver’s playoff history since 1997.

This one stung because the Nuggets retook the lead and had every chance to flip the result.

With 50 seconds remaining and Denver trailing, Jokic hammered home a driving dunk, pulling the Nuggets within two. Anthony Edwards traveled on the ensuing possession, handing the ball back to Denver with 31 seconds left and a chance to tie or take the lead.

Out of the timeout, Jokic drove into the paint, lining up for a floater against a Wolves defense that was scrambling and showing bodies in front of him. Instead of shooting his money shot but a tough one, he kicked it to Christian Braun down low, who was fouled. Braun missed the first free throw. He made the second. Denver trailed 114-115 with 19 seconds left. It never got closer.

“I thought I had him and kind of step up and jump in here. I thought I had a pass,” Jokic said afterward. “But I should definitely take that. We had two free throws, so not a bad result. But I definitely should have shot the floater.”

Nikola Jokic “I definitely should’ve taken the floater… we got two free throws so it wasn’t a bad result but I should’ve taken it” pic.twitter.com/dwyoVci8GS

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) April 21, 2026

David Adelman didn’t second-guess the best player in the world but made it clear he wants him shooting.

“You always want him to shoot that shot, but he sees what he sees out there,” Adelman said. “If he sees his teammate open, he’s gonna make that play. And I trust CB to make free throws. It rimmed out. That happens in the NBA. You’re going to have moments that you don’t want to remember. That’s a tough moment for CB after playing such a good game.”

Julius Randle sank two free throws to push the lead to three. Then, with 11 seconds left, Murray pulled up for a 21-foot jumper — a long two, when the Nuggets trailed by three and needed a 3-pointer. It clanged off iron. Donte DiVincenzo grabbed the rebound and raced the other way for a breakaway dunk to ice the 119-114 final.

Murray explained his thinking: “We’re down three. We just need a bucket. We have a timeout. I mean, I can make a shot, you know, for it to go well. So that was the problem. I didn’t make it.”

Edwards, from the winning podium, was honest. “I was kind of happy he took the two,” he said.

That it came to this seemed impossible 40 minutes earlier.

Ball Arena was electric from the opening tip. Murray hit his first 3-pointer of the playoffs on the game’s first possession — after going 0-for-8 from deep in Game 1 — and turned around to point at his father in the crowd. He hit back-to-back four-point plays. Tim Hardaway Jr. added one of his own. Denver shot 66.7% from the field in the first quarter, going 6-for-9 from 3-point range, and stormed to a 39-25 lead.

Then the Timberwolves — the same franchise that staged the biggest Game 7 comeback in NBA history in this very building in 2024 — flipped the script. Minnesota outscored Denver 39-25 in the second quarter, an exact mirror of the first, and surged to an eight-point lead.

“So, basically same quarters, first and second, just opposite teams,” Jokic said.

Murray capped an 8-0 Nuggets run with a 51-foot heave at the halftime buzzer to tie it at 64. Jokic then took over in the third quarter, scoring 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds — only the ninth time since 1997 an NBA player has posted those numbers in a single playoff quarter. Denver carried a 93-90 lead into the fourth.

And then the Nuggets’ two best players went cold.

Jokic went 1-for-7 from the field in the fourth quarter. Murray went 1-for-5. Denver didn’t make a field goal for 4:39 of game time in the final period — most of those misses belonging to Jokic. The Wolves capitalized. Naz Reid’s and-1 early in the quarter trimmed the lead, and Jaden McDaniels’ fast-break dunk off a DiVincenzo feed with under five minutes to play gave Minnesota its first lead of the half, 108-107. The Nuggets never recovered.

“I feel like we had the game in hand,” Murray said, “and then we just didn’t make our shots.”

When asked whether the dismal fourth-quarter shooting from his stars demanded a trip back to the drawing board, Adelman didn’t hesitate.

“No,” he said. “I want them (Jokic and Murray) to shoot the ball.”

What Adelman did want to fix was the glass. Minnesota held a staggering 20-3 advantage in second-chance points — a margin that defined the loss as much as any missed jumper.

“Every time we made a run, I felt like that’s what stopped the run,” Adelman said.

Murray, who logged a team-high 42 minutes and 40 seconds, said the fatigue was real. So was the responsibility he felt.

“We played a great game,” Murray said. “I guess it was a fun game to be part of. We just didn’t get the job done the last couple of minutes. And that doesn’t normally happen. So it’s a stinger.”

Jokic finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. Murray had 30 points and seven assists. Edwards led Minnesota with 30 points, while Randle added 24 points and nine rebounds. DiVincenzo finished with 16 points and a game-best plus-20.

The series is tied 1-1 heading to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Thursday night. Adelman preached steadiness.

“You can be really down tonight, and really up Saturday, but you have to just keep your temperament where it’s at,” he said. “I’ve been around these guys a long time. They understand what this is.”

On most nights, the Nuggets trust Jokic and Murray with the game on the line — and they deliver. They had won seven straight games in the clutch. But in ending the team’s 13-game win streak, the Nuggets struggled in the clutch — a somewhat common issue this season.

Still, it was stunning in a playoff game to see Jokic and Murray not finish. It doesn’t normally happen — which is exactly what makes it a stinger.