The defending champion Nuggets are officially out of the championship race after falling in Game 7 at the hands of the Timberwolves.
Amazingly, the T-Wolves came back from 20 points down to win the game – the largest Game 7 comeback of the playoff era (1997-1998).
Nikola Jokic finished the game with 34 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists on 46.4% shooting from the field, but it wasn’t enough.
He made sure to give his opponents their flowers after the game and also discussed what they could be as a rival for the Nuggets.
“I mean, yeah, I think they’re built to beat us one way or another,” Jokic said. “I mean, just look at their roster — they basically have two All-Stars, two probably defensive starters of the year, Mike Conley who’s probably the most underrated player in the NBA. I mean, he’s pretty good. He didn’t shoot well in this game. One minute he was the go-to guy.” forward in the game back to them. Then they have a Sixth Man of the Year, they have Kyle and Walker who are very good. One thing the team can do literally: it can be big, it can be small, like that.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone wasn’t as complimentary as Jokic, and he slammed a reporter who asked him the question, “How hard is it to get a loss like this after being up 20?”
When Malone returned the applause, he said, “Next question, man. The seasons are over. That’s the hard part. Fu*k to be up by 2. The seasons are over. You don’t understand that. The season is over; it is difficult. Stupid questions.”
Later in the press conference, Malone seemed to take it upon himself to be asked about the effort made by his players, which he cannot fault.
“I think mentally and physically, the boys are blown away. They are dead tired. They gave me everything I could ask for and that’s why this hurts, I’m going to walk out of this building tonight with my head held high. Because we competed, we fought. We gave ourselves a chance and came up short and that will happen sometimes. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy to try and repeat and I think we just have to improve, across the country, get better and come back even stronger. “
READ MORE: Emotional Kyrie Irving Goes In On Jason Kidd After Game 7 Win
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