Nikola Jokic was cavalier with the ball, and the Cavaliers took advantage.
The last and possibly the worst of his seven turnovers was a thwarted shot attempt that looked more like a pass. It could be mistaken for the latter only because Jokic had thrown so many errant passes over the last two hours already. This, like the others, was on a road to nowhere. Gift-wrapped for the nearest defender to intercept in the middle of the floor.
Jokic was backing down Jarrett Allen when it happened. Spinning away from the baseline, the three-time MVP suddenly flung the ball toward the weak side with 43 seconds to go. “I lost the ball, and then the ball went that way,” he said afterward. “I tried to score, but I lost the ball on the spin. … It was not a pass.” It wasn’t actually a shot, either. With the benefit of Jokic’s explanation, it resembled more of a flailing attempt to draw a foul. He thought he got hit on the arm.
“Did he get fouled? I don’t know,” coach David Adelman said.
Whatever it was, no Nuggets were in the vicinity. The sloppy error led to a game-tying 3-pointer from James Harden, and eventually a 119-117 Nuggets loss in the last second — their fourth loss in five games.
“I mean, we played probably the top three teams in the NBA,” Jokic said when asked if he’s discouraged or unconcerned by how Denver has played in its first real skid of the season. “Probably two of those three games, we were kind of in the game. We were close. And today, we played against a team who changed the team (last week) basically. They have two really good players and a lot of shooters around them. So are we happy with the losses? No. But I think we can build on the games that we played.”
DENVER , CO – FEBRUARY 9: Christian Braun (0) of the Denver Nuggets looks for Bruce Brown (11) as James Harden (1) of the Cleveland Cavaliers defends during the fourth quarter of the Cavs’ 119-117 win at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Monday, February 9, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Not worried — yet
Jokic can generally be taken at his word when he offers a glass-half-full evaluation of his team, if only because he’s plenty willing to take a candidly glass-half-empty stance as well. Last season, he declared the Nuggets had “tricked ourselves into (thinking) that we are playing good” immediately after a career-best nine-game winning streak ended. As it turned out, Josh Kroenke recognized it as a facade, too. It was only convincing enough to save Michael Malone’s job for two more months.
So it’s perhaps equally telling when Denver’s franchise superstar is hesitant to worry during a slump. This isn’t anywhere near doomsday for the 2025-26 Nuggets from Jokic’s vantage point. Nonetheless, their fourth-quarter collapse against the Cavs was another avoidable home loss, and Jokic’s floor game bore some of the blame, even as he amassed a league-leading 19th triple-double. He committed seven of the team’s 13 turnovers, most of them on inaccurate or forced passes, while attempting only 11 shots from the field and passing out of numerous post-ups down the stretch. He told reporters afterward that he didn’t anticipate situations quickly enough before making decisions.
“He was aggressive to go down there,” Adelman said. “A lot of times, you run the pick-and-roll. … When he’s aggressive to go down there and he feels like he has an advantage, we’re gonna go down there. That’s what he does. It was unfortunate. I felt for the guys. We created a lot of open shots. The 41 3s was a good number, in my opinion, tonight just because the way they guarded. We just didn’t have a great shooting night.”
In one of the weirdest statistics of this entire NBA season, the Nuggets are now 8-2 in games involving clutch time without Jokic, but 5-11 in clutch games when he plays.
Not that any of his teammates are blaming him. Almost everything went wrong as an 11-point lead slipped away in the last eight minutes on Monday. The Nuggets struggled to contain Donovan Mitchell, who scored at will or created advantages with his dribble penetration. The Cavs manufactured second-chance opportunities on the glass. Their role players sparked the comeback with timely 3s. Denver’s role players couldn’t buy a bucket suddenly for a few possessions, and that was enough to reinvigorate the visitors.
Tim Hardaway Jr. — who was closing over Julian Strawther because of both experience and switchability onto James Harden, according to Adelman — missed a clean 3-point look that would’ve given Denver the lead with 10 seconds left. Jamal Murray fouled Donovan Mitchell 0.9 seconds before the buzzer in transition to give Cleveland the decisive points. The Nuggets couldn’t produce a quality shot out of their last inbound play, settling for an awkward Jokic leaner.
“Felt like we were up 10, and then they got a few offensive rebounds. Hit a 3. We miss the open one. Great look, great offense. Then they come down, offensive rebound, three,” Murray said. “So it’s just like those little ones, those details, we’ve gotta pay attention to. Because we’re playing well for the whole game. It’s just a couple stints where we’re keeping them in it or allowing them to have confidence or an opportunity or another shot at it. … We’re giving them one too many chances, and then it’s coming back to bite us.”
Nikola Jokic (15) of the Denver Nuggets sits between Daron Holmes II (14) and Zeke Nnaji (22) during the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 119-117 win at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Monday, February 9, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
‘A weird rhythm’
Also looming over every decision right now is Jokic’s playing time, which the Nuggets are still trying to monitor in the aftermath of his knee injury (and a recent ankle tweak in New York). The superstar center played an unusual pattern of minutes against Cleveland, starting the second and fourth quarters in a stagger with the bench unit. That meant a quick respite in the middle of both quarters, and a return to the court for only the last three to four minutes of each half.
It was merely the latest example of an ever-changing rotation, which Nuggets coach David Adelman has been trying to assemble around various injuries and minute restrictions.
“They’ve handled it well. It’s just, it’s not a fun thing for anybody. It really screws with your rhythm,” Adelman said. “And let’s think about this: It’s not just Nikola. I bring Jonas (Valanciunas) in for a short period of time. He misses two free throws, but he’s stiff. He’s playing short bursts. And then the other part of that is if I get Jamal out, Nikola starting quarters helps us, but it also breaks up (Jokic’s) minutes. So it’s just where we’re at right now. It’s not why we lost the game. It’s just a weird rhythm to how we’re playing right now.
“I know when we get through the All-Star break, we’ll re-discuss what that is, and we’ll get back to a more normal rotation. … It’s an inexact science. If we scored 120 (tonight), I’d feel great about the rotation. But we didn’t. We lost by two, and I can’t stand it. That’s just the way it is.”
Jokic is now a minus-41 in 77 clutch minutes this season, with nine assists, four turnovers and a 26% clip from 3-point range. He’s been one of the most reliable players in the sport with games on the line in recent years, but Denver’s clutch execution with him on the court has developed into a mystifying anomaly in 2025-26.
Thirteen out of 20 losses have been within grasp for the Nuggets in the last five minutes. The 20th probably should’ve been secured before then. But it slipped out of Jokic’s hands and into James Harden’s in a span of 10 seconds.
“This is one of the ones you’ll remember at the end of the year,” Adelman said.
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