Milwaukee Bucks big man Brook Lopez got one of the toughest defensive assignments on Monday night when he went toe-to-toe against two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. Lopez did all he could to keep the six-time All-Star at bay — with a lot of help from his Bucks teammates, of course — but ultimately, Jokic did enough to lead the defending champs to a 103-117 victory at the Ball Arena.

Nikola Jokic threw this pass right through Brook Lopez’ hands to assist dỏ Porter

Despite the loss, however, Lopez still deserves a ton of credit for the effort he put in against one of the greatest big men this game has ever seen.

After the game, an understandably worn-out Lopez dropped a pretty obvious confession about just how special Jokic is. Lopez felt the full wrath of the 6-foot-11 star in this one, and he has lived to tell the tale.

“He’s so good, there’s different levels to the difficulty,” Lopez said with a weary laugh, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But I thought our guys did a good job of reading and deciding when to help for me, when to have my back and just make it a bit more difficult for him.”

Jokic finished with 25 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists, three steals, two blocks, and one 3-pointer by the time the final whistle sounded. But Lopez and the Bucks limited him to 10-of-25 shooting, a very impressive effort on the part of Milwaukee’s defense.

But when Lopez and company take on Jokic and the Nuggets once more on February 12, they will be hoping that all of this leads to victory.