Time travel: Early to mid-March. The Denver Nuggets side felt as if the season was theirs. Competing neck-and-neck with the table toppers as 3rd seemed low to their standards. Even after a brief stumble and ending up as the #4 seed, the Nuggets were the bookies’ favorites to get into the semis without a hitch. But you just never know what life throws at you sometimes. Fast forward to the last week of April. Who knew the Clippers were turning up the heat and switching on their postseason mode? Denver didn’t, for sure. But even in the face of surprises, past demons keep prevailing. And their 117-83 blowout at the hands of Ty Lue’s band of misfits is just down to one of those demons- heavy dependencies on Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.

Just go and have a look at the box numbers for last night’s games. It seems like it’s the same movie on repeat over the course of 7 months. Murray seemed to have his offensive plays on point, while Jokic came up big with what genuinely feels like his 1000th triple-double of the season. But the rest of the team? Not a single player came close to a 20-point score on the board except the Jokic-Jamal duo. At this point, the Mile High Club knows its destiny all too well. And their situation is so uncommon. The solution is staring them in the face- the supporting cast to the Murray-Jokic duo needs to be better. Even still, they can’t seem to play their cards right.

But what transpired last night was a bit unusual, for sure. It does seem from the outside that nothing gets by the Joker in the Nuggets’ lineup. Although his post-game presser did make it seem like there were clear disagreements regarding rotations in the squad. He knows all too well that the one-man show needs to run throughout the course of the game, and he’s ready to make that sacrifice. But the Clippers’ having an astounding number of 3s was down to the defensive deficiencies of the squad, and of course, rotational mistakes.

“I mean, they’re not supposed to put me in rotation. We need to be much detail wise and we need to live with something that we need to. We’re going to [have to] sacrifice. So we just need to be more a little bit detailed and live with the result,” said the Joker in the post-game sound.

The fat boy did us all proud. He’s doing his best, and he’s setting the world alight. But he’s nothing if not humble. Nikola Jokic might be the fan favorite to be the MVP this season, but he knows where he needs to improve himself on the court.

“I think they have [taken advantage of] couple of our misunderstanding. Like I was supposed to be up on James Harden and pick and he just dribbled up [with] two pull up trees. So that’s my mistake. I think everybody has one or two mistake and that’s basically five to 10 open looks, so we cannot have those- like my bad mistake.”

All Nikola Jokic talked about was their defensive deficiencies. Which is true- they need to compensate somehow. But Jamal Murray’s version of events seems to add insult to injury just that much more. If what he said is true, then they have a lot more to reconsider than initially feared.

Jamal Murray’s way forward is to “trust each other”

You can’t help but feel bad for Jokic and Murray. They genuinely can’t do more than they are doing right now. But the Blue Arrow’s been a straight shooter all his life- both on and off the court. The only difference is- on court, it’s 47.4% accuracy. But off court? No less than 100%. When he speaks, the Nugs should take notes. So, what does he think is the right way out of this?

“Just settle down and not turn it over. With all the doubling and stuff to do, we’re just kind of throwing the ball on the first thing you see. We just got to settle down and let things happen and trust each other,” said Murray in his post-game presser. He’s right- you’re NBA players. The sight of Kawhi Leonard and James Harden guarding you might seem daunting. But the most important thing is to have faith and let things happen naturally.

But that’s not all. Murray feels like there’s a loss of grit and confidence in the team. Naturally, you just lost the last two games and threw your series advantage in the bin. The solution? “I feel like we’re always trying to, everybody’s trying to make the assists. We got to just swing the ball around. If there’s still time in the clock, we can keep going to our continuity, you know what I’m saying? So I think there’s a lot of stuff that we can just be better at.”

The cries of the fans seem like a broken tape recorder at this point. You can’t put more emphasis on a better supporting cast for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Their opposition, in contrast, doesn’t just sit back and let the Leonard-Harden duo flourish. They let them take point and cover all the bases they need to cover. Let’s hope Denver can do the same- else this series will turn on its head.