David Berding/Getty Images

Christian Braun shouldered the blame for the Denver Nuggets’ 119-116 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday after his celebration of a poster dunk on Rudy Gobert led to a confrontation on the court that resulted in double technical fouls being assessed.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Braun explained he thought that moment halted the Nuggets’ positive momentum and allowed Minnesota back in the game.

“I got to be more responsible,” Braun said. “It’s two points. Obviously, those are the plays you want to make and those are the momentum plays I want to make, but getting a tech throws the momentum their way, so I got to do a better job of controlling myself.”

The incident occurred midway through the fourth quarter. Braun’s dunk came during a 13-0 run for the Nuggets to give them a 112-102 lead with 4:17 left to play.

Minnesota closed the game on a 17-4 run to erase the 10-point deficit and steal a victory.

Even though Braun tried to take responsibility for halting the Nuggets’ momentum, the bigger issue during the final four minutes were the struggles of Nikola Jokić.

The reigning NBA MVP committed two turnovers in the span of three offensive possessions for Denver that led to five points for the Timberwolves. He also missed his last two shot attempts in the final minute, including a three as time expired that would have tied the game.

No one is going to point the finger at Jokić in a game where he put up 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting, 13 rebounds and nine assists. He was far from the biggest problem overall for the Nuggets, but his miscues in crunch time stood out because the rest of the team is struggling to execute.

Jamal Murray still looks broken after scoring six points on 2-of-7 shooting in 22 minutes. He is shooting just 37.0 percent from the field in five games.

The Russell Westbrook experiment is going about as well as expected. He had nearly as many turnovers (four) as points (five) and went 1-of-8 from the field in 25 minutes. His plus-minus is now at minus-51 in 104 minutes this season.

Braun played arguably his best game of the season with 14 points and seven rebounds.

All that can be said about the Nuggets right now is they are a deeply flawed team with a superstar in the middle of everything. They are below-average by defensive rating and net rating.

Despite having Jokić to run the offense, they are 12th in offensive rating. All of this has resulted in the Nuggets losing three of their first five games, with their lone wins coming in two overtime games against the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets.