Nikola Jokic knows he must score more efficiently to save Nuggets in NBA Playoffs after Game 3 dud

Bennett Durando, The Denver Post on Apr 24, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — The frustration was etched on Nikola Jokic’s face. He would try to control it, closing his eyes to collect himself momentarily, reaching for his forehead as if he was ailed by a headache. He might have been giving himself one, vexed by his sudden inability to score when the Nuggets needed it.

Jokic’s feathery touch turned rigid on him Thursday. Rudy Gobert and a roaring, black-out playoff crowd towered over him. His 3s were off-center, his hook shots and floaters short. His 7-for-26 shooting performance in a 113-96 Game 3 loss was one of the worst scoring games of his Hall of Fame-destined career.

In the last five seasons, Jokic has attempted 18 or more field goals in 207 games, including the playoffs. This was his lowest percentage (26.9%) in any of those games. Second-lowest? A 2023 playoff game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“They’re big, tall, long. They’re really good defensive players. So they’re making you shoot over them or just make an extra move,” Jokic said. “Especially in the first quarter, we couldn’t make shots. And when you open the game like that, then the easy ones are not gonna go either. So a really good defensive quarter by them, and a really bad offensive quarter by us. … They’re making you think about it.”

Jokic heaped praise on Minnesota’s defense, like he did after Gobert shut off his water at the end of Game 2. Nuggets coach David Adelman and co-star Jamal Murray both chalked it up to a bad night, doubling down on their faith in the three-time MVP center.

“He just missed. I really mean it. I thought the 3s were actually really good shots, for the most part,” Adelman said. “The 2-point shots, as far as the face-up jumpers, getting to the rim, these are things that he’s going to do. He had a tough night. And it happens to players. These guys play in a million playoff games. There’s nights that are poor. And I think (Jokic and Murray) will bounce back, and I think everybody needs a day to understand that we just did not play well offensively.”

“I thought the shots that he took today, it wasn’t like he doesn’t make those every day of his life,” added Murray, who also struggled with 16 points on 17 shots. “So I’ve never seen him shoot what he shot today. That’s just kind of an outlier type of game. Really from everybody. But we’re not worried about Jok.”

Jokic’s 3-point shooting hasn’t been intimidating. It hasn’t forced Gobert to venture out of his comfort zone. The shot has been inconsistent since Jokic returned from a knee injury at the end of January. He shot 31.9% in the final 33 games of the regular season, down from 43.5% pre-injury. The problem wasn’t so much his lower body as right wrist inflammation, which has flared up from time to time over the last half-decade. Now he’s 5 for 24 in the playoffs so far.

But his finishing inside the arc has been perhaps an even more pressing concern against Minnesota. After a 5-for-16 Game 3, Jokic has missed 15 of his last 21 shots from 2-point range, spanning five quarters of action. The most important moment of the series so far was his decision to pass up a game-tying floater attempt with 20 seconds remaining in Game 2.

Gobert’s contests have been enough to make him think too much. Muscle memory has been disrupted. Jokic says it’s disrupting his playmaking, too. He ended Game 3 with three assists and four turnovers — in part because nobody could make a shot for Denver, in part because the Timberwolves are more content than most teams in the NBA to leave their center on an island. They prefer not to double-team Jokic until they’re forced to.

“I think to be a distributor, I need to be a little bit (better scorer). Not need to be, but if I make a little bit (more) shots, then the defense is going to react,” he said. “So I think that’s why I couldn’t get anybody involved, because they didn’t help. It was just 1-on-1 coverage. So I think I needed to do a little bit better job scoring, and then I think it will open up for everybody else.”

Until it does, Jokic and the Nuggets are facing their first gut-check moment of the playoffs earlier than they were hoping. They’re already staring at a 2-1 series deficit to their rivals. To avoid the brink of elimination Saturday (6:30 p.m. MT) at Target Center, they’ll have to snap out of their worst offensive funk of the season.

Game 3 was their first of the year that Jokic played and Denver scored fewer than 100 points.

“We’ve gotta bounce back mentally, come out with a better mindset to start the game. … We’ve gotta fight more,” Murray said. “We’ve gotta bring the challenge to them. We didn’t make shots, which is really frustrating. I mean, nobody put the ball in for us. So that’s tough. So we’ve just gotta be better.”

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