“Lost Because of Me”: Nikola Jokic Blames Himself for Nuggets’ Blowout Loss Against Celtics

Posted on by Jack Marks

The Boston Celtics stifled reigning MVP Nikola Jokic on their route to a 124-104 victory against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum both scoring 30 points. The Celtics hit 57.3 percent from the field and 19 of 40 from the three-point range. In addition, they made all 11 of their free throws.

Nikola Jokic, the reigning league MVP, had a bad night in the defeat, scoring only 23 points while adding eight rebounds and four assists. Those figures would be fantastic for the majority of players. However, this is not the case with Jokic. Jokic missed 14 shots in the first half and finished with 23 points on an uncharacteristically poor 8 for 23 shooting performance.

Jokic, who is enjoying a statistically stronger season than a year ago, blamed the defeat on himself, not his teammates. Jokic talked to the media after the game and highlighted the Nuggets‘ main issue.

Nikola Jokic reveals the reason behind Nuggets’ loss to Celtics

“We lost because of me. It’s very simple. Maybe I force it, I don’t know, I just thought I had easy scores, and I didn’t. They guarded me really well. Defensively, I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.”

It wasn’t only the Nuggets’ big man’s lack of production. In the defeat, he shot 8-23 from the field, which was abysmal. The Celtics have now won three straight games and are 21-4 in their past 25. It was Denver’s second straight loss, following a setback in Cleveland. Denver is tied for first place in the Northwest Division with the Minnesota Timberwolves, three and a half games behind the Utah Jazz.

This is the type of thing you want to hear from your boss. Whether or not Jokic was to blame for the loss, he stepped up and accepted responsibility. He was definitely at least a part of the problem in this situation. It would be surprising if he didn’t rebound against the Clippers on Tuesday.