The Most Valuable Player debate might be the last thing on the minds of Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for now, but it won’t be for long.
As soon as the Thunder star makes his way to the free throw line in Monday’s Game 1, expect the Paycom Center crowd to make their voices heard in the form of a loud “M-V-P” chant. Jokic’s supporters will have to wait until the series shifts to Denver for Friday’s Game 3, but they will do the same. Oklahoma City’s coach doesn’t expect it to be a distraction.
“Neither one of them are going to get distracted by that,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday. “Both of them are going to be fully invested in this series.”
The top two MVP candidates lead their respective teams into a highly anticipated second-round series with much different cases to be deemed the league’s most valuable. Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in scoring with 32.7 points per game. The 26-year-old can get it done at all three levels, shooting better than 51% from the field, 37% from 3 and 89% on free throws. He’s become one of the league’s toughest covers in Oklahoma City, played a big role in the league’s best defense and was inarguably the best player on the league’s best team.
“Even when you have like ‘Oh, that’s a good defensive (possession),’ it feels so easy for him,” Jokic said of the competition after Saturday’s game. “He’s amazing with the change of speed, change of rhythm and ball handling. He can post up guys. He can go by guys. His shooting the ball at midrange is perfect, like unguardable basically. … Very special player.”
Jokic’s case is built on the back of arguably the best offensive season in NBA history. He became the first center to average a triple-double and ranked in the top three in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game, something that’s never been done. The 30-year-old did so while making more than 57% of his shots from the field, 41% from 3 and 80% at the line. Multiple times over the course of the year, Jokic stated this season featured the best basketball of his career, something he reaffirmed after eliminating the Clippers.
“Nikola had maybe the greatest season ever, and it’s pretty simple to watch. I don’t know if you’ll ever see a player do what he did ever again in one singular regular season. They were both great. Obviously, the Thunder are an amazing team. Shai is an amazing player. So, I don’t think there’s any wrong choice, but to see what Nikola did night in and night out, I don’t know that you’ll ever see that again,” Christian Braun said.
“(He) hits big shots, takes threes, scores every time in the paint. He was great again tonight, defensively. People don’t realize how good he is for us defensively.”
Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder history, lineups, stats | Everything to know before series
This is Jokic’s fifth consecutive season being squarely in the MVP debate. He won three of the past four years and finished second to Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid in a much-debated race. He has made it well-known how little sleep he loses over the annual debate.
“I know for a fact it doesn’t,” Braun said.
“He’s not worried about the individual stuff. He wants to win. He wants to win at a high level. I think you saw tonight, maybe he didn’t score the most points, but he was really excited with how we played as a team, and he’s communicating a ton and in the huddle. So, I don’t think that that the award means as much to him as winning this.”
Gilgeous-Alexander finished fifth in the 2023 race and finished second to Jokic last season. The Thunder star is a significant favorite to win his first MVP award this season, but he’s also trying to lead Oklahoma City to its first championship.
“I think this is the last (thing) on both of our minds,” Jokic said Saturday.
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That might’ve been the case in the days leading up to the Game 1, but it will be unavoidable at some point Monday. When the award is expected to be announced later in the series and presented to the winner in either Denver or Oklahoma City, the debate will be deafening until one of the two teams claims a spot in the conference finals.
BREAKOUT BOX
Jokic vs. Gilgeous-Alexander by the numbers
Jokic Gilgeous-Alexander
Points: 29.6 32.7
Rebounds: 12.7 5
Assists: 10.2 6.4
Steals: 1.8 1.7
Blocks: .6 1
Turnovers: 3.3 2.4
Field goal%: 57.6 51.9
3-point%: 41.7 37.5
Free throw%: 80 89.8
PER: 32.1 30.6