The Denver Nuggets were missing the centerpiece of their offense in the crucial stretch of Thursday night's loss against the Portland Trail Blazers. After a monster triple-double in Monday's OT win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nikola Jokic had another impressive outing last night and dropped 25 points. With the Nuggets playing their third game in four days, head coach Michael Malone thought he would sit out The Joker in the latter part of tonight's contest which ultimately dealt them their second loss in Orlando.

When asked about his decision to sit his starting center in the closing quarter of tonight's game, Malone said that he didn't even want to play Nikola Jokic at all tonight, given a choice.

“He's too important to us.” said the Nuggets head coach (per Kendra Andrews on Twitter).

With the Nuggets already clinching a playoff spot, you could understand where the fifth-year head coach is coming from. The schedule of games in the NBA bubble is a bit compressed so it would be a bit practical to pace your stars and allow your supporting cast the opportunity to thrive. Something that rookie Michael Porter Jr. has fully taken advantage of.

But with the margin of games between the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers all the way down to the sixth-seeded Houston Rockers being extremely thin, you would think that every team in the West would surely want to win all its remaining games to cement the best possible playoff spot this season.

The Nuggets, who currently sit at the third spot in the West, get a chance to bounce back on Monday night against the Utah Jazz, who trail the Nuggets in the standings by just 1.5 games.