OKLAHOMA CITY — If Nikola Jokic wanted to campaign for MVP votes, his performance Monday night would have provided a pretty strong platform.
Jokic dominated despite battling elbow and ankle injuries one night after his Denver Nuggets lost to the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder. He stuffed the box score with 35 points, 18 rebounds, 8 assists, a steal and a block in the Nuggets’ 140-127 win in the rematch between the teams, outshining Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (25 points, 7 assists), the player who might stand in the way of Jokic’s fourth MVP in five seasons.
But Jokic has never lobbied for MVP votes in the past and has no plans to do so this season, when he’s averaging career highs of 28.9 points, 10.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game, ranking among the league’s top three in each of those categories as well as rebounds (13.0).
“I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, that’s enough,” Jokic said. “If not, the guy [Gilgeous-Alexander] deserves it. He’s really amazing.”
Gilgeous-Alexander got the best of the battle of the MVP favorites on Sunday afternoon, scoring 40 points to lead the Thunder to a 127-103 win.
Denver mixed in zone looks Monday night, frequently committing a couple of defenders to Gilgeous-Alexander and limiting him to only 14 field goal attempts. Gilgeous-Alexander was held to 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting in the fourth quarter, as Denver executed coach Michael Malone’s plan to force the ball out of the NBA scoring leader’s hands.
“Just to give a different look,” said Jokic, who was 5-of-5 from the floor with a few assists in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets put the game away. “He’s definitely a top player in this league. He’s really talented. He’s so crafty. His midrange is really, really, really historical, I’m going to say. He’s a great player, so we try to make him take bad shots or just get rid of the ball.”
Denver’s defensive strategy was made simpler due to a hip strain suffered by Thunder All-Star forward Jalen Williams, who was sidelined for the second half.
Malone attempted to persuade Jokic to sit out Monday night to nurse his sore left ankle and the right elbow contusion he suffered Sunday, which impacted a subpar shooting outing (10-of-23 from the floor, 2-of-10 from 3-point range) by the big man in the loss. While making the case via text message, Malone mentioned to Jokic that he had played 39, 38, 44 and 41 minutes in the Nuggets’ previous four games.
“Hell no,” Jokic replied, making it clear that he planned to play.
“I think part of that was also we lost,” Malone said, “and he wanted to lead this team and find a way to come in here and get a win today.”
Jokic joked that he had another motive.
“Because if I don’t play then I’m going to work out with Felipe [Eichenberger, Denver’s strength and conditioning coach],” Jokic said after logging 40 minutes in the victory. “And that’s much harder than playing.”
Jokic instead delivered a performance as efficient as it was dominant. He was 15-of-20 from the floor, including an errant, one-handed heave from the backcourt just before the halftime buzzer. That was Jokic’s final miss of the night, as he made all eight of his field goal attempts in the second half despite significant soreness in his shooting elbow.
Malone didn’t pass up the opportunity to lobby on behalf of the face of Denver’s franchise.
“As we wind down this season, this whole MVP thing is really going to pick up,” Malone said. “You understand that; that’s a part of it. Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he’s deserving of that.
“My thing is this: If you didn’t know that Nikola won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper and you had no idea that the guy who was averaging a triple-double, the guy who’s top three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one’s ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don’t think so, I think you guys are all full of s—.”
The Nuggets’ win combined with the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss in Brooklyn bumped Denver (42-23) to second place in the West. Oklahoma City (53-12) still has an 11-game cushion.
Asked if team records would go alongside the statistics for Player A and Player B, Malone noted that the Nuggets were the West’s top seed in 2022-23. Jokic finished as the MVP runner-up to Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid that season, the only time he didn’t win the honor in the past four years.
“So, if you want to use that card, I’m all for it,” he said. “But the one year Nikola didn’t win it, we were the No. 1 seed in the West. But I’ll never negative recruit.
“Shai is not a good player, [he’s] a great player, and if he wins it, I’ll actually clap my hands and be happy for him because he’s such a great guy who’s a great player. He’s good for this game. So it’s not Nikola versus Shai. For me, it’s me promoting my guy because I know what he means to this game. When you look at it from a historical perspective, he’s doing things that no one’s ever done.”
