Nuggets’ David Adelman calls out critics for Nikola Jokic ‘freakouts’ when he struggles

On Monday evening, the Denver Nuggets staved off elimination by picking up a comfortable Game 5 home win over the shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves in their first round playoff series. Nikola Jokic had by far his best game of the series in this one, scoring an efficient 27 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 16 assists in the win.

After the game, Nuggets head coach David Adelman spoke on why he’s not surprised at the strong performance despite some of the big man’s struggles earlier in the series.

“Jok is Jok,” said Adelman, per Anthony Slater of ESPN. “These [small] sample size games and the freakouts when he doesn’t play well. You know he’s going to play well. Then his 16 assists. Assists are hard to get unless you make shots.”

Much had been said about Jokic’s seeming inability to play efficient offense against Timberwolves defensive anchor Rudy Gobert throughout this series. Gobert has been among the few NBA players consistently able to make things hard on the Joker throughout the last several years, although few could have predicted Jokic struggling to this extent through the first four games of the series.

However, none of those issues were present on Monday night, and the Nuggets are now viewed by many to be back in the driver’s seat in this series despite trailing 3-2, thanks in large part to the fact that the Timberwolves are playing without both Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo, each of whom was injured in their Game 4 win at home.

The Nuggets will look to continue taking advantage of their opponent’s poor injury luck when the teams next hit the floor for Game 6 back in Minnesota on Wednesday evening.

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