It wasn't just losing Jamal. It was losing Monte for a month, then Jamal as soon as he Morris came back, then Will until round 2, then PJ Dozier right afterward.
By the time the playoffs came around they were starting Facu Campazzo and Austin Rivers, their third-string PG and a player who didn't have a job for two months. They played admirably and had so much positive variance in round one, but in round two it felt like all that juju came back to haunt them. Jokic absolutely backpacked that team all year, moreso than any apex superstar has done this side of Lebron, and I don't think he had anything left for this series.