Jokic was pretty heated during a timeout in the Nuggets loss.
The Denver Nuggets came into Saturday night's matchup at Crypto.com Arena looking to gain ground in a tight Western Conference race, but they walked away with a 127-125 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers that stung from start to finish.
The game had everything you could ask for, and then some.
Nikola Jokic was at the center of all of it, both on the court and in one of the more talked-about moments of the night when cameras caught him visibly yelling at his teammates during a tense huddle.
After the game, though, Jokic kept things simple when asked about the moment.
"I was animated a couple times," Jokic said.
A Rough Ending to a Great Performance
That might be the understatement of the season, because the three-time MVP looked like a man who wanted this one badly and could feel it slipping away.
Jokic finished the night with 24 points, 16 rebounds, and 14 assists for his 27th triple-double of the season, continuing to put up numbers that nobody else in the league can match on a nightly basis.
Aaron Gordon added 27 points to lead the Nuggets in scoring, and for most of the night it looked like Denver had enough to get the win.
But Austin Reaves had other plans.
Reaves' Incredible Play Changes Everything
Late in regulation with the Lakers down three, Reaves stepped to the free throw line and sank the first one before intentionally missing the second off the front of the rim.
The ball bounced right back to him and he knocked down a floater from about nine feet out with under two seconds left to tie the game, sending it to overtime.
It was a play that takes both the skill and the confidence to even attempt, and it completely changed the outcome of the game.
In overtime, Luka Doncic put the finishing touches on the win with a step-back jumper from 17 feet on the baseline with just half a second left to give the Lakers the two-point lead they would not give back.
Doncic finished with 30 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds on the night, logging his eighth triple-double of the season and reminding everyone why the Lakers traded for him.
What It Means Going Forward
The loss drops Denver to 41-28 on the season while the Lakers improve to 42-25, and the Western Conference standings remain extremely tight between the two teams heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
For Jokic, the frustration makes sense even if he did not want to make a big deal out of it after the game.
He is averaging 28.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists per game this season and doing everything he can to keep the Nuggets in the thick of the playoff race, but games like this one show just how thin the margin is between winning and losing against elite competition.
Denver will look to bounce back when they host the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, while the Lakers head to Houston on Monday riding a wave of momentum after one of the wildest finishes of the season.