The Oklahoma City Thunder had a historic regular season. They followed that up with an opening round sweep against the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite winning the championship in 2023, the Denver Nuggets entered their Western Conference Semifinals matchup with OKC as heavy underdogs. It was widely assumed that superstar Nikola Jokic would need to have a near-flawless series for Denver to have any chance. Instead, Jokic had arguably the worst playoff game of his career in Game 3, yet the Nuggets still prevailed.
Nikola Jokic Puts Up Rare Stinker In Game 3, Yet Denver Still Wins
Nikola Jokic Had A Game 3 To Forget (Although His Team Still Won)
With the series headed to Denver all squared up at 1-1, Game 3 certainly was a pivotal one for both teams. The Nuggets now own the 2-1 series advantage after their 113-104 win in overtime. It was an excellent bounce-back performance for Denver, as they lost by a whopping 43 points in Game 2. The Nuggets outscored the Thunder 11-2 in the extra five minutes.
So the three-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, probably had yet another historic game, right? Friday night was the 30-year-old’s 90th career playoff game. It can be said that it may have been the worst performance of his postseason career.
It is somewhat remarkable that the Nuggets pulled out Game 3 when looking at Jokic’s final line. In his 44 minutes of action, the 6-foot-11 center shot a miserable 8-25 from the field, and even worse, missed all 10 of his three-point tries. Jokic also turned the ball over eight times.
Of his 90 career playoff games, the eight turnovers is tied for the most Jokic has ever had. The other time he had eight came in 2019 in a quadruple overtime game against the Portland Trail Blazers in which he played just shy of 65 minutes.
Jokic’s 32% shooting from the field on Friday was the third-worst of his postseason career. In the two outings he was worse though, he finished with a triple-double and just two turnovers in both contests.
The 10 three-point attempts without a miss was easily a career-high for the Serbian. Previous to Friday, he never had a postseason game where he attempted more than four threes without making one.
Jokic career-lows tonight:
— Worst TS% in a playoff game
— Most turnovers in a playoff game
— Most missed threes in a playoff game
— 2nd most missed shots in a playoff gameand the Nuggets won the game. pic.twitter.com/lS6iqsccgZ
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 10, 2025
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In spite of all this, the Nuggets won and find themselves up 2-1 in the series.
Thunder May Regret Not Capitalizing
It truly is astonishing that OKC was unable to win Game 3 even with Jokic’s subpar performance. This is a team that finished the regular season with the best point differential in NBA history. The Thunder’s 68 wins in the regular season are tied for the fifth-most ever.
It didn’t help that the likely MVP of the league, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, went through his own Game 3 struggles. He shot just 7-22 from the field, finishing with 18 points. Game 4 will take place on Sunday afternoon in Denver. If the Thunder are unable to come back and win the series, they will certainly look at Game 3 as a missed opportunity to take advantage of a poor outing from the Joker.
Photo credit: © Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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