Throughout the regular season, Jokic and company demonstrated consistent play and ultimately finished second in their conference, just behind the surprising Oklahoma.

In the playoffs, the fate immediately brought Denver and the Lakers together, but LeBron and Davis had no chance. After that, the Nuggets lost two games to Minnesota on their home court and now cannot afford any mistakes. Jokic had a good first game, but in the second, he and the entire team faltered.

He now has three Kia MVPs in four years and that stretch of dominance compares with the greats in NBA history. We’ve certainly seen Jokic at his best. Which makes what we’re seeing now seem so weird.

In this series, the Wolves are not only sending a platoon of bigs, all giving different looks — Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid, Kyle Anderson — their guards are crashing as soon as Jokic puts the ball on the floor. That’s partly why he has 11 turnovers in this series.

The Nuggets will need Jokic to be more selfish (which isn’t his nature) if only to ease the burden from Murray and make him more comfortable. That could force the Wolves to make adjustments.

“He’s just got look to be more aggressive,” Malone said. “If they’re not doubling, he’s got to look to make more shots.”

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