NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: NUGGETS VS WARRIORS

April 16, 2022

Nikola Jokic

Denver Nuggets

Postgame Media Conference

Warriors 123, Nuggets 107

Q. What do you attribute the difference tonight to?

NIKOLA JOKIC: I mean, you can say whatever. They were just better than us in every aspect of the game. We're supposed to be taller team; they had more offensive rebounds than us. We didn't have that many turnovers, but they had 20-something points off the turnovers. They were living on the free-throw line, 29 times. I mean, they beat us in every aspect of the game.

Q. Monte also said the communication was terrible in the second quarter. Do you agree with that? Do you feel like the communication can improve significantly, and was that an issue?

NIKOLA JOKIC: I mean, to be honest, they win it so easy, so I think we can improve in many aspects, yes. We can improve in communication, too. I think we can improve in many aspects.

Q. How would you say they defended you and how did they make things tough for you tonight?

NIKOLA JOKIC: Really good. They had Draymond, who's a -- how many times player defensive -- two, three times? So he was in these situations. They have Looney, they have Bjelica. They have the tools.

I think I missed a couple easy ones, but I think they were defending me really well.

I need to be better. I just need to at least make the lay-ups and easy shots.

Q. When you guys were preparing for Steph, obviously there were a lot of questions in terms of how much he would play, if he would start. How close to what you guys prepared for -- what did you guys prepare for and how close was that to what you saw on the court? Were there any surprises with Steph coming off the bench or how that affected you?

NIKOLA JOKIC: No, because we prepared for their, let's say, best three scorers right now pretty much the same way. They didn't surprise us that much.

Q. Nikola, you've been in a lot of different playoff series. Have you found at all that the game is officiated differently and you have to approach going up offensively different than you do in the regular season to get whistles, to get to the free-throw line?

NIKOLA JOKIC: My friend, I think I'm going to get fined if I answer. So I can't. I mean, is it a little bit more chippy? Yes, but then -- I cannot answer.

Q. You knew they were a three-point shooting team coming into this game. How can you do a better job of defending from deep against them?

NIKOLA JOKIC: To be honest, we tried. That's what they do. That's why they've thrived, and that's how we play. That's why they won a couple of championships, and it's working for them. I think they cannot have wide open looks. That's something that we can defend, we can try to defend.

They can make tough shots and they can make three, four tough shots in a row or three, four threes in a row, but I think we need to sustain that because we know that that's going to happen, and hopefully we can answer.

Q. More than once during the night, you had your head in your hands kind of in disbelief of what was going on on the court with the calls. I'm not rich enough to pay your fines, but how do you prevent yourself from getting frustrated when you don't get to the foul line?

NIKOLA JOKIC: I mean, to be honest, I think I didn't blame. I know it's part of the game, so I didn't even -- I think I didn't even talk to the refs that much. I think it's normal, so it's going to be part of the game.

Q. What's the confidence level in the locker room right now that you guys can make this a long series?

NIKOLA JOKIC: I think to be honest we lost every time the first game, isn't it?

Q. A couple, yeah.

NIKOLA JOKIC: I think most of them we lost, so figure out what should we do, just try to be better. Hopefully it's going to be a long series and hopefully we came here to steal one if we can, of course. The pressure is not on us. We are underdogs here, but we need to act like the dogs, if that makes -- we need to fight, and we cannot quit. We did not quit today, I'm just saying that as a phrase.