What if the action of the match had taken place five minutes from the end of the third quarter? When Mike Malone jumped on his Serbian pivot, Nikola Jokic, while the latter set fire to one of the three referees after a basket under the circle despite several contacts.
Sanctioned for a technical fault, Nikola Jokic can consider himself lucky not to have been expelled! And the Nuggets can consider themselves lucky to have been able to count on their pivot MVP for the end of the match against the Clippers.
With 20 of the last 27 points scored by Denver last night, plus two assists on the remaining 7 points, the “Joker” was still omnipotent for his team, victorious on the wire in overtime (130-128). With 49 points in the end, one unit from his personal best, plus 14 rebounds and 10 assists, the reigning MVP honored his rank. He invites himself into the closed club of pivots in triple-double with more than 48 points, alongside Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar.
“If Nikola Jokic is not the MVP, then who can be? “
“Do you understand how much attention he attracts?” “, asked Mike Malone. “He’s been taking twos, even threes all game, and he’s finished at 49 points. If Nikola Jokic is not the MVP, then who can be? “
Decisive throughout the match, and even more at the end, with this final transverse pass for Aaron Gordon’s 3-point win, Nikola Jokic made everyone agree, thus making Aaron Gordon say that he is simply “the best basketball player in the world”.
It must be said that Nikola Jokic went into overdrive in the second half, with 26 points including 17 in the 3rd quarter alone. And the boy did not slow down in overtime, quite the contrary, with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and this pass under pressure for the winning shot.
“I think we should have more matches on national channels with a guy who makes these kinds of stats”, continues Monte Morris, author of 19 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds. “The world needs to see this. It’s a model. He’s not even from this country and he has a huge group of fans behind him. People don’t give him enough credit. He should easily win a second MVP title. “
| Nikola Jokic | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2015-16 | DEN | 80 | 22 | 51.2 | 33.3 | 81.1 | 2.3 | 4.7 | 7.0 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 10.0 |
| 2016-17 | DEN | 73 | 28 | 57.8 | 32.4 | 82.5 | 2.9 | 6.9 | 9.8 | 4.9 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 16.7 |
| 2017-18 | DEN | 75 | 33 | 49.9 | 39.6 | 85.0 | 2.6 | 8.1 | 10.7 | 6.1 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 18.5 |
| 2018-19 | DEN | 80 | 31 | 51.1 | 30.7 | 82.1 | 2.9 | 8.0 | 10.8 | 7.3 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 20.1 |
| 2019-20 | DEN | 73 | 32 | 52.8 | 31.4 | 81.7 | 2.3 | 7.5 | 9.7 | 7.0 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 3.1 | 0.6 | 20.0 |
| 2020-21 ★ | DEN | 72 | 35 | 56.6 | 38.8 | 86.8 | 2.9 | 8.0 | 10.8 | 8.3 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 26.4 |
| 2021-22 | DEN | 37 | 33 | 56.6 | 35.9 | 78.2 | 2.7 | 11.2 | 14.0 | 7.4 | 2.5 | 1.3 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 25.3 |
| Total | 490 | 30 | 53.7 | 34.8 | 83.0 | 2.6 | 7.5 | 10.1 | 6.1 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 19.0 | |
