Nuggets searching for answers, offering troubling quotes after game 2 embarrassment

The Nuggets were at a loss on Monday night as they got thoroughly trounced by the Timberwolves 106-80 in game two of their second-round playoff series. It was a true demolition that started with the Wolves smothering defense and trickled down to just about every possible element of a basketball game. It was a beatdown the likes of which we almost never see.

It’s certainly not something we’ve seen from this version of the Nuggets in a playoff game in their own building. It was genuinely shocking to watch. The Nuggets and their fans didn’t know what hit them.

Apparently, this remained true after the game as the team and staff took the podium for postgame press conferences. Body language and interviews certainly aren’t everything, but the Nuggets didn’t look like a team that was confident they were going to bounce back.

Jokic apathetic after defeat

They sounded defeated, frustrated, and at a loss for answers in a lot of ways. Nikola Jokic was asked how he thought the team would respond in game three, to which he replied, “I don’t know. We will see”. Jokic also said he wasn’t motivated by losing, and when asked what motivates him he said, “That’s a good question. Maybe winning”.

There are certainly different ways to lead, but Jokic doesn’t exactly sound like someone who is confident and ready to fire up his troops to head into battle. When Michael Malone stepped to the podium he didn’t exactly express any more optimism or try to spin things, instead opting for bluntness.

Some of his quotes included: “They kicked our a**”, “we got beat up in our building”, and “We got embarrassed in front of our own fans”. It was a tough night all around for the Nuggets and you can see them dealing with it in different ways.

At the end of the day, these are just answers to questions shortly after getting destroyed in a basketball game. There is nothing they could have said to change the outcome or anything that happened in the game. There’s also nothing they could have said to change the future. So while fans can lament the general tone of apathy, and yearn for more of a “rah-rah” type of approach, the team just needs to focus on the task at hand and get ready for Friday.