SAN FRANCISCO – Nuggets coach Michael Malone knows Nikola Jokic can’t lose his temper as he did late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to Washington, his second ejection in just over two weeks.
He knows that the Nuggets can’t afford for their franchise player to pop off to a referee, drawing two technical fouls in a tied game when Denver is fighting for playoff positioning. So, he sat down with his star and addressed the issue.
“It wasn’t a long talk,” said Malone. “It was a pretty pointed, direct talk.”
But while acknowledging that Jokic needs to control his emotions better, Malone wasn’t pleased with how referee James Capers handled the situation.
“The flip side of that is you hate to see a crew chief telling him, ‘You want another one?’” Malone said from shootaround here ahead of Tuesday’s matchup against Golden State. “The NBA’s always talking about the referees trying to diffuse situations and walking away. Asking a player if he wants another one, to me, is not diffusing a situation, which is unfortunate.”
Jokic got tossed almost immediately after arguing a foul call
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport)
Jokic was livid that Wizards forward Bobby Portis, who had already given Jokic a bloody nose and latched on to him during a particularly aggressive foul, wasn’t whistled for smacking both hands on his back.
“Letap be honest,” Malone said. “It was a blatant foul. It was a two-hand slap in the back, I’m not sure how three referees missed that, but regardless of that, nothing is going to make it OK for Nikola to get thrown out of a game.”
The message seemed to get through to Jokic, who has been ejected three times this season.
“Coach talked to me,” Jokic said. “He said I’m too important and I cannot do that. I know I can’t do that. Itap bad of me, but you need to say something. We are not going to be, like, sheep, you know.”
The intensity and the emotions aren’t going to diminish with the playoffs approaching. For the Nuggets to realize their potential this postseason, they need Jokic to temper his volatile swings even when he feels he’s not getting a favorable whistle.
“And thatap going to be a big step in his maturation, continued development is handling the adversity, handling the refs,” Malone said. “Itap easier for him in his mind to think, ‘Well, no one’s sticking up for me.’ Well, I can’t get a tech every game, and I can’t, in a tie game with three minutes to go, afford to get a tech. Itap too valuable.”
