Nikola Jokic’s struggles continue in Nuggets’ Game 4 loss

DENVER — The silver lining from the worst three-game shooting funk of Nikola Jokic’s career is that the Nuggets managed to pull out a win during that stretch — but now their Western Conference semifinal series with the Oklahoma City Thunder is tied 2-2 after another uncharacteristically inefficient outing by Jokic during a 92-87 Denver loss Sunday in Game 4.

Jokic finished with 27 points but was 7-of-22 from the floor and missed a critical pair of free throws with the Nuggets trailing by four with 3:15 remaining. After a dominant 42-point performance in the series opener, the three-time MVP has shot 21-of-63 (33.3%) in the past three games.

According to ESPN Research, it’s the first time in Jokic’s career that he has shot worse than 40% with at least 15 attempts in three consecutive games, regular season or playoffs.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Jokic, who has a 19-to-23 assist-to-turnover ratio after dishing out a postseason-low three assists Sunday. “They’re playing really good defense on me. They’re really into my body, physical. I think I missed two or three open looks night, so it’s a little bit of everything. They’re shrinking the floor on me. They’re having a guy behind the defender, so it’s a bit of everything. I need to do a better job, of course, but it’s part of the game.”

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Jokic’s fellow MVP finalist, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, closed strong for the first time in the series, which continues with Game 5 on Tuesday in Oklahoma City. Gilgeous-Alexander had three buckets in the final 4:36, which matched the Thunder’s team total in clutch situations during their two losses in the series.

“I always feel like those are the moments where the guy on the team earns his buck,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting. “You earn your money [when] you close games, you win games, and that’s what everything’s about. And the later you go into season — the better the teams, the closer the games — you need to rise to the occasion.”

Jokic was 2-of-7 from the floor and 1-of-4 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, when the Nuggets blew an eight-point lead.

Jokic was far from alone with his shooting woes in Game 4. The teams combined to shoot 33.5% from the floor, the worst combined field goal percentage in a playoff game since 2004, according to ESPN Research.

It was an especially ugly start to the game, which was an early afternoon tip-off on the heels of Denver’s overtime win Friday night. The Thunder and Nuggets combined to score only 25 points in the first quarter, tied for the fewest in the first quarter of a playoff game during the shot-clock era. Denver scored only eight points in the frame, none by Jokic.

Oklahoma City and Denver combined to miss 32 of the first 33 3-point attempts, including the first 16 by the Nuggets until Russell Westbrook hit one from the right wing, eliciting a roar from the Ball Arena crowd.

“I think that both teams were very tired coming off an unbelievably physical overtime battle on a late Friday night,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “If it affected us, it surely affected them as well. Both of us had super tired legs.”

It was the seventh game in 13 days for the Nuggets, whose first-round series against the LA Clippers went seven games. Jokic, however, dismissed a question about fatigue factoring into his offensive struggles.

“When I play, I don’t think about that,” said Jokic, who played 43 minutes Sunday after logging 44 minutes in Game 3.

Gilgeous-Alexander coyly said he was “not sure” how Oklahoma City had defended Jokic so well over the past few games.

“But we have to keep doing it if we want to win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with a smile.

Oklahoma City’s defensive effort against Jokic starts with center Isaiah Hartenstein’s work. According to ESPN Research tracking, Jokic was 3-of-10 when Hartenstein was the primary defender in Game 4.

“We’re just really just focused on how to execute as a team,” Hartenstein said. “He’s a great player. We know he is going to make tough shots throughout the series, but we’ve just got to stay disciplined. I think that’s the biggest key. We’ve been doing a great job staying disciplined, great job playing team defense. Again, he’s a great player, so he is going to make shots eventually.”