Why Have Nikola Jokic & the Nuggets STRUGGLED in Clutch Time This Season?

DNVR Denver Nuggets Podcast

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4.7 • 719 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Denver Nuggets have been an elite clutch team in the Nikola Jokic era—but this season they’ve cratered late in games, ranking near the bottom of the NBA in clutch net rating and sitting 29th in clutch defense. In this breakdown with DNVR Nuggets Podcast's Harrison Wind, Eric Wedum, & Brendan Vogt, they dive into why the Nuggets’ “winning time” identity has slipped, from injuries and constantly changing closing lineups (including Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson absences) to shaky execution in the Jokic–Jamal Murray two-man game and spacing issues. What’s really behind the late-game struggles, and can Denver fix it before the NBA Playoffs? Subscribe to DNVR Sports and drop your biggest reason in the comments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, guys, it's been one of the stories of this season.
0:03.1	The Nuggets have been one of, if not the best teams in the NBA in the clutch for most
0:09.4	of the last several seasons, for most of the peak Yokic era.
0:13.4	This season, though, they are statistically one of the worst teams in the clutch.
0:19.2	Overall, this season, eighth in clutch offense.
0:22.8	So okay, but a far cry from, you know, the top of that stat where they've been for most of the last couple seasons.
0:29.9	Defensively, they are 29th in the NBA in clutch defense.
0:34.4	The only team they're better than in the clutch is the Brooklyn Nets overall
0:38.2	net rating. They are 26th in the clutch. It's been a really weird storyline to track this
0:46.1	season just because it's been so uncharacteristic of Nicole Yokin's Jamal Marie in this team.
0:51.2	I'll go to your first vote. What's your biggest reason for why they're so bad in the
0:55.6	clutch? It's definitely the defense, obviously. The stats prove that, you know, I think we should do
1:01.9	a little bit of a housekeeping preface and acknowledge the obvious factor. There are injuries in play here,
1:08.5	right? Not having Aaron Gordon. And then if you don't have Aaron Gordon, you'd like to have Peyton Watson and really more to the larger point.
1:14.6	Who you have closing any given game has changed so much over the last couple of months.
1:19.5	That has to be taken into account, you know, before you start levying criticism.
1:23.3	But having said that, it just feels like the effort is borderline non-existent defensively at times, you know, like layup lines.
1:31.8	I think for Yokic's defense in the clutch, there was, I used to think Yokic was a great clutch defender, right?
1:37.7	You might see him kind of not contest every layup throughout the course of the game to avoid fouls, you know, but he would kind of lock
1:46.1	in during winning time. Right now it doesn't feel like many, if any, guys are locking in
1:51.1	during winning time on the defensive side of the ball. So it starts with defense, but, you know,
1:56.5	the offense could be better too. Yeah. I think a lot of it has to do with the consistency of the players
	...

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