NBA playoffs winners and losers: Nikola Jokic struggles, Jonathan Kuminga leads Hawks past Knicks

The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks gave us another barnbuner on Thursday, with the Hawks escaping with their second straight one-point win to take a 2-1 lead in their first round series. The Knicks are in major trouble. This might be a 3-6 series, but the Hawks are proving to be every bit their equal. 

Elsewhere, the Nuggets also find themselves in a bind after Minnesota dealt them a 113-96 beating to take a 2-1 lead in that first-round series, while the Raptors got their series with Cleveland to 2-1 (still in favor of the Cavs) with a 126-104 win at home. 

Let’s take a look at the big winners and losers from Thursday night’s playoff action. 

Winner: Atlanta’s Jonathan Kuminga trade

People are giving the Hawks hell right now for trading Luke Kennard (who’s going off for the Lakers) for Gabe Vincent, but whatever. Kennard is not necessary on this team, and he’s very necessary on the Lakers. 

Meanwhile, it’s another trade that is looking like a big winner for the Hawks, who took an upside swing on the ultra-talented Kuminga in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis, who was hardly playing for them. Kuminga has been sensational over the last two games of this series, posting a combined 40 points on 61.5% shooting. 

This is not some new development for Kuminga, who has had huge playoff games in the past for the Warriors. The enigmatic former lottery pick averaged over 24 points over the final four games of the Warriors-Timberwolves series last year after Steph Curry got hurt, functioning as a legit go-to scorer. It’s hard to believe a guy this good was out of Steve Kerr’s rotation for long stints. He must feel like he has a new lease on his basketball life. 

It’s not just the efficient scoring. Kuminga is bringing infectious energy. He’s clearly feeling his role with this team, and his defense has been legit awesome. Coach Quin Snyder has closed with him the last two games so he can keep four shooters around CJ McCollum for optimal spacing and giving Jalen Brunson nowhere to hide. 

Snyder has also matched Kuminga onto Karl-Anthony Towns so the Knicks can’t run pick-and-roll with their best two players without a long, athletic defender switching onto Brunson. It has thrown a total wrinkle into New York’s late-game attack. Towns has two points over the last two fourth quarters. 

On the deciding defensive possession of Game 3, Kuminga started on Towns, switching onto Hart, doubled down on Brunson, and then beat Hart to the loose ball as time expired. This is big-time stuff. 

Indeed, Kuminga has been front and center on both ends in this series and he’s taking the opportunity to show everyone, once again, that he’s a big-time playoff player. 

Loser: Denver’s Nikola Jokić minutes

You’re not going to hear this often, but the Nuggets got slaughtered in Jokic’s 35 minutes on Thursday. He was a team-worst minus-21. They are minus-11 with him on the floor for the series. This is a genuine shock watching Jokic play this poorly. 

It obviously speaks to Jokic’s greatness that he’s averaging 25/14/7 and we’re saying he’s playing poorly, but it’s the truth. He’s shooting 40%. He’s almost totally lost his 3-ball (5 for 24 so far in this series, and he made just 32% of his 3s over the season’s final two-plus months after returning from the hyperextended knee). The Wolves can now sag off him and clog the paint with relative impunity. 

Meanwhile, in the paint, Rody Gobert is owning Jokic in a way we haven’t seen anyone do to this degree over the past half-decade, and it has Jokic thinking twice about plays he is used to making in his sleep. He has 12 turnovers in the three games. Here’s a taste of what Gobert has been serving up. 

And another …

Jokic made just 7 of his 26 shots on Thursday. The 19 misses are the second-most of his playoff career, with the most being 21, which also came against Minnesota in 2023. Gobert wasn’t always Jokic’s defender in that series. Karl-Anthony Towns did a good number on him while Gobert served as more of a roaming rim protector before Aaron Gordon became a deadeye shooter and stopped being a guy you could leave alone. 

But Gobert has has success against Jokic in the past, and he is mirroring his minutes in a straight-up matchup this series and absolutely winning the tilt. Suffice it to say, if Jokic is going to be a negative the Nuggets are in a world of trouble. Add to that Aaron Gordon not playing Game 3 and being uncertain for Game 4, and it gets even more dire. 

Loser: Knicks’ Mikal Bridges trade

Bridges has become an easy target for Knicks fans, who have been questioning for some time how in the world their team gave up five first-round picks for this guy. I maintain it was a reasonable trade at the time. Bridges isn’t worth that in a vacuum, obviously, but in the context of the Knicks and what they wanted to create as something of a Boston blueprint with a stretch-shooting big and a ton of two-way wings, he felt pretty perfect. 

He’s been fine for the Knicks in his two years. Nothing spectacular, but fine. Had some big moments in last year’s playoffs. But in these playoffs, it’s been an absolute mess. After missing the potential game-winning shot in Game 2, here was Bridges’ line in Game 3: 0 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 4 turnovers. 

Mike Brown could only play him for 21 minutes, and during that time the Knicks were outscored by 26 points. Meanwhile, look at what the lineup without Bridges did (with Deuce McBride as his replacement, as was the chosen lineup in closing time). 

Don’t be surprised if McBride is in the starting lineup in place of Bridges for Game 4, or at the very least taking a lot of his minites again if Bridges doesn’t turn this around quickly. The Knicks basically have no margin for error from here on out. 

Winner: Wolves’ Ayo Dosunmu trade

The Chicago Bulls’ inability to get even a single first-round pick in exchange for multiple really good players needs to be studied. Dosunmu was the latest to be shipped off in a deadline deal with the Timberwolves, who had a Nickeil Alexander-Walker-sized hole in their rotation until Dosunmu showed up. 

Dosumnu was really good for the Wolves from the time he showed up. He averaged 14.4 PPG on 52/41/92 shooting splits in 24 games with Minnesota. He shot 44% from 3 for the year. In the playoffs he’s been even better, averaging 16 points and five assists on 58% shooting. 

In the Wolves’ Game 3 win, Dosunmu put up 25 points and nine assists. Every one of his 10 buckets came at the rim. He was downhill all night. He cut. He drove. He ran in transition. He finished everything, as did pretty much all the Wolves as they doubled up the Nuggets in paint points 68-34. 

Not bad for a guy that only cost you second-round picks and Rob Dillingham. 

Winner: Toronto’s Barnes-Barrett duo

As mentioned above, the Raptors made it a series against the Cavs by taking Game 3 at home. They’re still down 2-1, but had they lost on Thursday this thing would’ve been over. 

RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes made sure that didn’t happen by scoring 33 points apiece. The duo hit nine of their 13 3s in becoming the first teammates in NBA history to each post at least 33 points, five rebounds and five assists on at least 63% shooting. 

On the other side, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden were held to a combined 33 points. Together with Evan Mobley, the trio missed 17 of their 21 3-pointers. 

You probably shouldn’t count on this happening again. Mitchell, at the very least, isn’t going to be held down like this very often, and if the Raptors shooting 57% overall and 61% from 3 while outscoring the Cavs 60-40 in the paint isn’t an outlier, I don’t know what is. 

Now, if Toronto manages to win Game 4, the we’ll have something real to talk about. Until then, this is a fairly common occurrence for a desperate team down 0-2 to win Game 3 at home.