MINUTI	30
POENI	23
SKOKOVI	14
ASISTENCIJE	4
ŠUT	11-15 | 73.3%
TROJKA	0-2 | 0%
SLOBODNA BACANJA	1-3 | 33.3%
BLOKADE	1
OSVOJENE LOPTE	2
IZGUBLJENE LOPTE	2

Nikola Jokic was bloodied early, upset late, and ultimately boiled over at a critical time for the Denver Nuggets.

It wasn’t what the cold-shooting Nuggets needed in the heat of a playoff race.

Jokic shook off a bloody nose in the first quarter but his temper at a non-call got him ejected late in the fourth. It was the final blow for Denver in a 95-90 loss

Jokic finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds but was in the locker room for the final 3:36, when the Wizards pulled away, leaving the Nuggets struggling down the stretch.

„Can’t get tossed,“ Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. „I don’t care what they do to him, how bad the refereeing is, foul call, no foul call, it doesn’t matter. He’s too valuable to this team.“

„I was fouled. They’re going to see it in the (Last Two-Minute Report), they’re going to see that it was a foul,“ Jokic said. „I said, `James he slapped me two hands in the head. I don’t know, I swear or something, but he gave me a technical. Then I said something back. He said, `Do you want another one,’ I said, `I don’t care’ and he gave me another one.“

It was a rough night all around for Jokic. He scored the first 10 points of the game for Denver and was 7-of-8 shooting when Bobby Portis hit him in the nose with his left hand while going up for a layup. Jokic left the game with a bloody nose and didn’t return until midway through the second quarter.

Later, Portis wrapped him up on a post-up and rode Jokic’s back as the center tried to push him off.

„I think our physicality got under his skin a little bit,“ Portis said. „I think the ref did a great job of us letting us play and being physical with each other.“

Jokic said he didn’t have a problem with Portis wrapping him up, calling it just a hard foul, but he said other fouls could have been called.

„Sometimes it’s really hard,“ he said. „The ball is in my hands a lot, there’s a lot of contact there. I’m not going to get every call but the obvious ones at least.“

ESPN