{"id":126421,"date":"2025-09-07T22:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126421\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T22:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:18:09","slug":"nikola-jokic-serbia-losing-upset-of-the-century-may-fuel-big-nuggets-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126421\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Jokic, Serbia losing ‘upset of the century’ may fuel big Nuggets season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikola Jokic and Serbia had high expectations for EuroBasket 2025. After a strong start to the tournament, Serbia was upset by Lauri Markkanen and Finland on Saturday. The result was shocking, as even the FIBA EuroBasket’s account on X (formerly Twitter) referred to it as the “upset of the century<\/a>.” However, could the defeat end up proving to be beneficial for the Denver Nuggets during the 2025-26 season?<\/p>\n

The Nuggets were surely hoping for the best<\/a> for Jokic in EuroBasket. Denver wants the best for the star player. Jokic cares deeply about EuroBasket, and he is likely frustrated following the shocking 92-86 upset. The star center scored 33 points and added eight assists, but Finland ultimately got the job done. <\/p>\n

The loss may give Jokic added motivation heading into the 2025-26 campaign. Serbia was also upset in EuroBasket 2022. Jokic followed up that EuroBasket loss by leading the Nuggets to an NBA championship. Nothing is guaranteed to occur, but a similar result could potentially come to fruition this year. <\/p>\n

Of course, it is a different Nuggets team this season. Nevertheless, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are set to lead the way once again. Denver has added impactful depth<\/a> around the stars. The Western Conference features no shortage of talent, but the Nuggets could still make noise in the postseason.<\/p>\n

At 30 years old, Jokic clearly is not slowing down. He performed well in EuroBasket this summer and enjoyed another big NBA campaign this past season. In 2024-25, Jokic averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He certainly had a case for winning his fourth career NBA MVP award, but Jokic ended up finishing second in voting as Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took home the honor. <\/p>\n

Still, Jokic is unquestionably one of the best players in the league. Many people around the NBA consider Jokic to be the best player in today’s game. He is able to score without any trouble while also often setting up his teammates for great looks at the basket. The Nuggets’ offense runs through Jokic — something that has been a recipe for success over the years. <\/p>\n

So, will Serbia’s loss truly impact the Nuggets during the upcoming 2025-26 season? Jokic without motivation is already a superstar, but all opponents can do is hope for the best when playing against a motivated Nikola Jokic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikola Jokic and Serbia had high expectations for EuroBasket 2025. After a strong start to the tournament, Serbia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-126421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}