When the Denver Nuggets walked off the court after a painful 110-98 Game 6 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the questions came fast and loud. Fans across Denver wanted real answers. Jokic gave a blunt answer that shifted responsibility away from the coaching staff and onto the players.
The three-time MVP stepped to the podium and did something genuinely rare in professional sports. He flat-out refused to shift blame onto his coach and turned it entirely onto the players instead. The accountability he showed at that press conference was something few superstars ever display so openly in public.
Jokic shuts down the coach’s criticism immediately
After the loss, questions around Denver’s coaching and roster decisions intensified. But Jokic shut that conversation down before it could gain momentum. He made clear the coaching staff had nothing to do with what went wrong on the court.
His exact words were direct. He said, “It’s not his fault,” he added, “We couldn’t rebound. It’s not his fault we couldn’t catch the ball very well.” He closed by saying there was nothing to blame the coach for and that it was all on the players. That kind of public loyalty from a franchise star is uncommon and striking.
The rebounding numbers tell a brutal story.
Minnesota dominated the glass, and it was not even close by the final whistle in Game 6. The Timberwolves finished Game 6 with 50 total rebounds compared to Denver’s 33. On the offensive glass alone, Minnesota held a staggering 19-6 advantage. Those second-chance opportunities buried the Nuggets repeatedly.
Rudy Gobert recorded 13 rebounds that night and was a wall all series long. Jaden McDaniels grabbed 10 boards while scoring 32 points. Denver could not keep bodies off the glass, and it cost them dearly in every close possession during the fourth quarter.
Little-known fact: The Denver Nuggets selected Gobert 27th overall in the 2013 draft, then traded him on draft night to the Utah Jazz.
Jokic accepted his share of the blame, too.
The Joker did not exempt himself from the criticism, even as he shielded everyone around him. Jokic told reporters he shoulders “a lot” of the blame for the loss. He said he needed to play much better, especially through the first three games of the series when Minnesota built a commanding 3-1 lead that Denver could never fully overcome.
His numbers across the series were solid on paper: 25.8 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 9.5 assists per game. But Jokic himself admitted the early games were not good enough. He held himself to a standard that box scores alone could not capture, and he was honest about falling short of it.
Little-known fact: Jokic became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both assists and rebounds per game during the 2025-26 regular season.
Minnesota won without its stars
Minnesota won despite missing key guards Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo, and Ayo Dosunmu.
That detail made the loss sting even more for Nuggets fans. Denver was the league’s top offensive unit during the regular season, averaging 122.1 points per game. Yet Minnesota held them under 100 points three times in the series, including twice in Minnesota.
Jokic addressed the injury card directly. He acknowledged that Denver was also missing Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson. But he refused to use it as an excuse. He said the Timberwolves were missing players too, and they still got the job done. That accountability was consistent with everything else he said at the podium.
Jamal Murray had a playoff series to forget
Murray entered the postseason as an All-Star. He left it with one of the worst series of his career. Murray averaged nearly 24 points per game during the series but shot just 35.7% from the field across six games. In Game 6 alone, he went 4 for 17. Every time the Nuggets needed him most, the shots refused to fall.
Murray acknowledged the failure publicly. He told reporters he felt he should have played better and that if he had performed even a little more, Denver might have won. That kind of honesty stings, but it matches the tone Jokic set. The entire Nuggets locker room took ownership of the collapse.
Adelman responded with class and took responsibility.
David Adelman acknowledged the weight of the result during his own press conference. He told reporters it was a very disappointing end to the season and that, as the head coach, he takes full responsibility for what did not go well. It was the kind of response that showed why his players fight for him.
Adelman completed his first full season as Denver’s coach with a 54-28 regular-season record. He had taken over mid-season the year before when Michael Malone was let go. The postseason exit will raise questions about his future, but Jokic’s firm public support likely matters more than any outside noise in that conversation.
The Serbia comment echoed around the basketball world
When asked whether changes were needed in Denver, Jokic gave the front office zero cover. He said it was not his decision to make and then delivered the line that broke the internet. He told reporters that if this had happened in Serbia, they would all have been fired.
The crowd of reporters erupted. The comment landed with extra weight, given that Denver had fired Michael Malone mid-playoffs the previous season. Jokic has a dry sense of humor, but the message underneath the joke was clear: this result was not acceptable.
What comes next for Denver this offseason
The Nuggets face a crossroads summer with real decisions to make at every level of the organization. Jokic said it plainly at the podium: the team is “far away” from title contention right now. That is a hard thing to hear from your own franchise player. But it also signals that Denver cannot simply run the same roster back and expect different results in 2027.
The front office will need to address depth, shooting consistency, and a rebounding problem that proved fatal in this series. Adelman’s status remains uncertain despite Jokic’s support. Murray’s playoff struggles will fuel trade speculation regardless of how anyone in Denver feels about it. The one thing that is settled is Jokic, and that is where the rebuild starts.
TL;DR
- The Nuggets lost to Minnesota in six games despite the Timberwolves missing Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo.
- Jokic publicly defended coach David Adelman and said the blame falls entirely on the players.
- Jamal Murray shot just 35.7% from the field across the series in a major postseason disappointment.
- Minnesota dominated the boards in Game 6 with 50 rebounds to Denver’s 33, including a 19 to 6 edge on the offensive glass.
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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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