Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic took the blame for what transpired in Sunday’s agonizing Game 7 loss even though it wasn’t on him. Before everyone’s eyes and across 14 revealing playoff games, Jokic played like an emerging force and a future MVP candidate. His numbers validated what many have known; Jokic is the unique player that has the capability of raising a franchise’s ceiling. Denver’s Game 7 loss to Portland was about missed 3-pointers, missed free throws and missed defensive rebounds. Most of those shortcomings can’t be pinned on him. “They look at me as a leader, they look at me as their best player,” Jokic said. “I feel responsible. I missed a lot of other shots, and I’m supposed to make some of those.” His playoff numbers, where he nearly averaged a triple-double in almost 40 minutes per game, spoke volumes of his ability to embrace any stage. And in the aftermath of Sunday’s 100-96 loss in the Western Conference semifinals, it was Jokic who wore the defeat on his sleeve. “I got Nikola Jokic in there taking blame for the loss,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, trying to hold back his emotions. “It’s not his fault. That was a group effort. I think the cumulative effect of 14 playoff games, and us asking him to do as much as we asked him to do, finally took its toll on him tonight.” Jokic can occasionally be so nonchalant about his success or the heights this Nuggets team enjoyed, it’s fair to ask how much these moments matter to him. For the future of where the Nuggets want to go, though, it was revealing to hear how much Sunday’s loss stung. “I knew it would be a time when this would come for him,” Nuggets veteran Will Barton told The Denver Post. “When your role changes and you become that guy, you’re almost forced to care. Not saying that he never did, but now it’s just, it’s more. He knows we come and go as he goes.” Jokic scored 29 points on 11 of 26 shooting, snagged 13 rebounds and registered just two assists. It was by far his lowest assist total of any game in the postseason. The Nuggets will head into an offseason lamenting the fact that they were just 2 of 19 from 3-point range and shot just 37 percent from the field. But outside of Jokic, Gary Harris (15 points) was the only Nugget who provided any consistent scoring threat in Game 7. The lack of assists underscored the dozens of missed shots from his teammates. Malone was particularly proud of the fact that Jokic, though unwarranted, accepted fault for Sunday’s outcome. “That is what I love,” Malone said. “For him to be as emotional and as upset as he was speaks to him truly caring. And he knows that we ask a lot of him, and he’s just upset because he didn’t think he did enough for us to win the game. I love the fact that he’s not afraid of the pressure to put this loss on him even though we know it’s not all on him. We win together and lose together.” As for next season, when expectations will be raised and an even more pronounced target will be on Jokic’s back, he issued a challenge to his teammates. Related Articles Kiszla: Nuggets fans booing Carmelo Anthony are foolish to let Melo live rent-free inside their heads 🔊 Nuggets Podcast: Looking ahead to Game 3 of Nuggets-Blazers as series flips to Portland Ball Arena’s capacity increases to 10,500 for Nuggets, Avalanche playoff games Nuggets 2021 NBA mock draft tracker 1.0: What the national experts predict Denver will do Examining Nuggets-Blazers scuffles during aggressive Game 2: “I don’t know how anybody wants to become a ref, to be honest” “I’m just asking for the guys who come back next year to come back better and prepared to do bigger things,” Jokic said. The Nuggets advanced further in the playoffs than most assumed they would. They survived a nasty rash of injuries, flirted with the No. 1 seed all season, unlocked a deadly pick-and-roll combo between Jokic and Jamal Murray, and started to tap potential that Malone and the Nuggets’ front office once saw possible. The future, after Sunday’s humbling loss, is beyond bright. If last year’s Game 82 spurred them to the verge of the Conference Finals, perhaps this sour taste yields even more uncharted territory next season. “Tonight’s loss is going to motivate us,” Malone said. “It’s going to motivate not just Jamal Murray, because he was 4-of-18, but we have now tasted what it’s like to win in the playoffs. We have tasted how close we were to get to the Western Conference finals. So we will use that to become a better team. I look forward to the challenge.”<doc-sep>DENVER — Nikola Jokic blames himself. “They look at me as their leader, they look at me like I’m their best player,” Jokic said. “I feel responsible.” No, Jokic was not exactly his usual, totally dominant self in Game 7 on Sunday. Yes, there was the foul shot he missed at the end, which made it really hard for the Nuggets to complete a last-minute comeback. He did kinda look worn out in the second half, as he missed shot after shot while the Nuggets’ nine-point halftime lead melted under the blaze of CJ McCollum. And so there he was Sunday, in the Denver locker room, apologizing to teammates because their season is over. In the end, though, the Nuggets’ 100-96 loss to Portland in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals can be blamed no more on Jokic than it can on Jamal Murray, or Paul Millsap, or on the bench failure from Game 6, or even on coach Michael Malone.<doc-sep>Nuggets star Nikola Jokic expects his team-mates to come back 'better' next year FREE now and never miss the top F1 stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top F1 stories again When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. The game finished 100-96 at the Pepsi Center in Colorado on a night where the Nuggets struggled to shoot the ball efficiently. After the game Jokic admitted he was “disappointed” they had lost the series and had not taken advantage of the “great opportunity” to progress to the Conference Finals in the West. This season the Nuggets ended a six-year playoff drought and were the second seeds in the West, but Portland will now face the Golden State Warriors for the conference title. Jokic led the Nuggets on the night in scoring with 29 points and he admitted he is expecting to see improvements from his team-mates for next season. I am just asking the guys who are going to come next year to come better and prepare to do bigger things Nikola Jokic “I am just asking the guys who are going to come next year to come better and prepare to do bigger things,” he said. The Nuggets struggled with their shooting in front of their home fans as they only managed to make 33-of-89 (37.1%) from the field. Things got worse from behind the arc as they registered only two three-pointers over the course of the game off 19 attempts. Jokic felt Portland played “smarter” during the game despite Blazers’ point guard Damian Lillard only finishing the night with 13 points as his shots appeared to go everywhere but through the hoop. Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets on the night in scoring with 29 points Nuggets struggled with their shooting in front of their home fans However, CJ McCollum stepped up for Portland as he scored 37 points, while also getting nine rebounds and an assist. “It was a tough game, we had our chances,” Jokic said. “They had their chances and they just used it smarter. “We had a great opportunity, even in the game in Portland we were there the whole game. “They scored a lot of offensive rebounds and we missed a lot of free throws. “That is kind of the easiest thing we can say.” And Jokic took the responsibility for the loss onto his own shoulders as he believed he should have shot the ball better. Blazers CJ McCollum stepped up for Portland scoring 37 points<doc-sep>The last walk is the longest, every step filled with regret. Nearly two hours after the NBA playoffs ended for the Nuggets with the sudden thud of a 100-96 loss to Portland, center Nikola Jokic took two dozen slow strides from the dressing room, then engulfed his big brother in a hug, kissing him tenderly on the cheek. “Tough loss,” Strahinja Jokic had told me minutes earlier, as this Serbian mountain of a man paced impatiently, waiting to offer a sympathetic shoulder to the Joker after a painful defeat in Game 7 on Denver’s home floor. “But a great season? This is true.” Kiss it all goodbye, while counting the ways this parting is such sweet sorrow. “Everything is still so raw,” said Denver coach Michael Malone, searching for perspective amid the shards of a broken heart. Yes, we saw the Nuggets return to the playoffs for the first time since 2013 and the emergence of Jokic as a legitimate superstar. Big kudos to all that. But there also was an opportunity lost, as the Nuggets blew not only a 3-2 advantage in this series, but also choked away a 17-point lead when they were a little more than 31 minutes of basketball away from advancing to the Western Conference finals. “I am sad, disappointed,” Jokic said. He has reinvigorated a position believed to dying by reinventing the way center is played. But the Joker, who missed a critical free throw during the final seconds, told teammates after the game this loss was on him, despite scoring 29 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. “It’s not his fault.This was a group effort,” Malone said. “I think the cumulative effect of 14 playoff games and us asking (Jokic) to do as much as we asked him to do finally took its toll.” The reasons Denver lost to Portland are as obvious as the 17 shots from 3-point range the Nuggets clanked, the 21 second-chance points they allowed the Blazers to convert, and atrocious offensive performances from Jamal Murray and Paul Millsap, who combined to make only seven of their 31 field-goal attempts. But maybe you missed the real moment this game got away from these young Nuggets, because maybe you were crazy with the excitement and anticipation of facing Golden State at precisely the same time Denver stopped focusing on the task at hand and started dreaming of bigger things. With 7 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the second quarter, guard Monte Morris stole a pass from Portland star Damian Lilliard and converted the turnover into a beautiful reverse layup that put the Nuggets up 39-22 and brought down the house, with 19,725 fans cranking up the volume on this party to 11. Down 17 points, Portland coach Terry Stotts called a timeout to check the emotional temperature of his players. “I don’t think they ever stopped believing,” he recalled. “And I didn’t really have to say much.” Basketball, especially on the pro level, is a game of runs, scoring blitzes capable of shifting the momentum or sticking a dagger in a foe. In the playoffs, those swings are accompanied by heightened emotion, the chest-thumping machismo or self-doubt that gnaws the gut. “That’s a part of basketball, and maturing in basketball. You’re going to have those swings,” said Millsap, the lone Denver player with significant playoff experience prior to this season. “The calmer team, the team that stays with it, is normally the team that comes out on top.” The Nuggets lost this game because youngsters tend to get ahead of themselves, instead of staying in the moment to concentrate on slowing Portland guard CJ McCollum. His 37 points and refuse-to-lose will too large to be measured by the box score explain why the Blazers made a big comeback that filled the arena with a sense of dread during the fourth quarter. But to blame inexperience would be too kind. The Nuggets got eliminated because the long grind of playoffs reveals fatal flaws. In every way except the final score, this loss in Game 7 was a mirror image of the Game 7 that Denver managed to survive against San Antonio in the opening round. Here’s where team management must adopt cold-eyed, clinical evaluation, absent of sentiment. Can we be blunt? As now constructed, this Denver team will never win a championship, and the flaws exposed in the playoffs won’t be fixed simply by waiting patiently for Denver’s roster to mature. The Nuggets desperately need a catch-and-shoot marksman that can drain 3-pointers, loosen the defense and take pressure off Jokic. Filling that gap in the roster shouldn’t be too difficult and need not be prohibitively expensive. Related Articles Kiszla: Nuggets fans booing Carmelo Anthony are foolish to let Melo live rent-free inside their heads Kiszla: Nastiness of Nuggets-Blazers playoff series can be summed up in single four-letter word: Melo. Lunch Special: Denver sports live chat with Mark Kiszla Kiszla: On Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon’s mission to win Stanley Cup, we are all his wingmen Kiszla: Embarrassed by Portland and old man Melo, Nuggets better buy a broom to sweep up pieces of shattered championship dream Now here’s where it gets trickier: While Joker is a franchise player and experience should help Murray develop the consistency to be a dangerous playoff performer, Denver needs a legit No. 2 star. And Millsap simply isn’t that star. At age 34, Millsap has seen the explosiveness take permanent leave from his body. His alarmingly subpar averages from Game 7’s this postseason – 9.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and an embarrassing 26 percent field-goal percentage – scream it would be madness to pay Millsap even half of the $30 million he’s scheduled to earn next season, if Denver picks up the option on his contract. Before taking the longest walk, the walk that means no more basketball games for five months, Malone said: “I love where we’re going, and who we’re going with.” So let’s toast how far the Nuggets have climbed in the NBA pecking order, while being mindful the ascent to a championship only gets tougher from here.<doc-sep>
Nikola Jokic points the finger at himself after the Nuggets lose the series to the Trail Blazers at home, citing his missed free throws down the stretch. (0:49) DENVER -- After the Denver Nuggets' best season in a decade came to an end, Nikola Jokic took the blame for the Game 7 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite having 29 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks, Jokic pointed the finger at himself for the 100-96 loss at home, in which he missed seven of 10 shots in the fourth quarter and one of two free throws with 11.4 seconds remaining and Denver down three in the Western Conference semifinals' deciding game. "They look at me as a leader. They look at me as their best player," Jokic said postgame. "So yeah, I missed those free throws near the end, and in the Portland game we went to four overtimes, I missed a lot of other shots, and I'm supposed to make some of those." In his first postseason, Jokic emerged as the best big man in the NBA playoffs. He averaged 24.8 points, 13.0 rebounds and 8.9 assists, and there were times when San Antonio and Portland didn't have an answer for the 7-footer. "I got Nikola Jokic in there taking blame for the loss," Denver coach Michael Malone said moments after Game 7. "It's not his fault. This was a group effort. I think the cumulative effect of 14 playoff games and us asking him to do as much as we asked him to do finally took its toll on him tonight." Jokic had four triple-doubles, including 33 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists in a four-overtime loss in Game 3 that saw the big man play 65 minutes, the most playoff minutes in the shot clock era. "I hope that after 14 playoff games, America, everybody around the world that watches the playoffs, really came to appreciate Nikola's game," Malone said. "Playoff debut, almost averaged a triple-double in 14 games and was playing close to 40 minutes a night. He's arguably the best big man in the NBA." The Nuggets shot just 2-for-19 from 3-point range in Game 7, and Jokic was the only Nugget to make the two 3-pointers. Jamal Murray shot 4-for-18 and finished with 17 points. Gary Harris made seven of 11 shots and scored 15 points. The Nuggets will go into the offseason with the bitter taste of not being able to get to the Western Conference finals despite being up 3-2 with Game 7 on their home floor. "You want to look at it in a positive way, but it's tough when you know you can beat a team and you lose," Murray said. "It's just tough."