You can’t afford to drop the ball—literally or figuratively—in a two-possession playoff game with under four minutes to go. But that’s exactly what the Denver Nuggets did in Game 4 against the Thunder. In a stunning lapse, Nikola Jokic and company committed a 5-second violation on a broken inbounds play that looked more disorganized than the Thunder’s second unit.
Both Nikola Jokic and interim coach David Adelman knew it. This wasn’t just a mistake — it was the kind that flips a series.
David Adelman didn’t dance around it. He called out the play design, took responsibility, but clearly pointed at Michael Porter Jr. without saying it too loud. The 26-year-old needed to flash for the ball. He didn’t. The play collapsed. It looked like Denver freelanced a YMCA set in crunch time. Adelman took the blame but didn’t hide the frustration over Michael Porter Jr. zoning out.
“We knew Caruso was going to pick up… I don’t know if Mike wasn’t attentive to the play. He was the next man that was supposed to flash… That’s inexcusable… That’s an execution mistake, and that’s on me.”
Even Nikola Jokic, the King of Shrug, didn’t shrug this one off. “That was a big, big play… It’s literally everybody. That cannot happen.”
Nobody blamed fatigue, nobody pointed fingers at the refs. It was just flat-out bad execution. Simple as that.
This ain’t a hot take — it’s just the truth: if the Nuggets want to take this series, they’ve got to stop handing the ball to OKC without a fight. No more brain fog. No more “who was supposed to cut?” concerns. Get the ball in, run the set, and stop making the Thunder look like they’ve got Gary Payton and Scottie Pippen on the floor.
ongoing story…
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