OKLAHOMA CITY — Maybe Nikola Jokic insisted on playing because the immediate challenge represented his greater good. The Nuggets were 3-12 against other teams seeded in the top four of either conference, and Jokic was keenly aware of it. Their collective self-esteem needed first aid. Symptoms would only worsen with back-to-back losses to the first-place team in the West.
Maybe his defiance of Michael Malone’s suggestion was an act of pride. Jokic not only plays through injuries but regularly side-steps questions about them from reporters. When he developed a sudden and mysterious limp in Boston this month, he played dumb about its origin: “I’ve limped basically the past 14 years.”
Multiple team sources described the center’s bumps and bruises entering Monday’s back-to-back game as a “laundry list.” The ones officially detailed by the team: left ankle impingement and a right elbow contusion. “This guy is beat up with 18 games to go,” Malone said.
Maybe Jokic was actually telling the truth later when he wisecracked that he rebuked Malone because the alternative to playing against the Thunder was a rigorous workout with Felipe Eichenberger, the team’s strength and conditioning coach. “That’s much harder than playing,” Jokic said solemnly.
Or maybe Jokic had a taste for redemption — not just collectively but individually — after he struggled to score in Sunday’s final three quarters while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped his third consecutive 40-point game on national television.
Maybe that’s partially why, when Malone approached him after Denver’s 24-point loss for “a conversation about ‘maybe we take tomorrow’s game off,’” Jokic emphatically pushed back.
“Hell no,” he told Malone, according to the coach.
Maybe, this year of all years, Jokic actually covets the trophy with Michael Jordan’s name on it. He’s at least compelled enough to recognize his magnum opus when he sees it.
His race against Gilgeous-Alexander for a fourth MVP crown might be hurtling toward a photo finish. If it is, Jokic is playing from behind, according to the betting odds and tea leaves. He was awfully comfortable playing from behind on Monday in Oklahoma City, where SGA and company punked Denver in the fourth quarter a day earlier. Jokic’s 35 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists helped ensure a season split between the Nuggets and Thunder and a head-to-head stalemate between MVP candidates.
“This is my third or fourth year in a row (in the discussion), so … I don’t know. I cannot control it,” Jokic said after Denver’s 140-127 win. “I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life. So if that’s enough, it’s enough. If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.”
Jokic has used that refrain once or twice this season, an admission of his renown that he typically ducks and dodges. Self-promotion is not his style. He has rather famously expressed discomfort, disinterest or even downright disdain for MVP chatter in past seasons, when he and Joel Embiid were held to the same microscope that Gilgeous-Alexander is being introduced to now. Jokic leaves the mythology to the media.
That makes his acknowledgment of a momentous season all the more eye-opening, especially in the context of the latest MVP race.
“People don’t understand how tough Jok is,” Jamal Murray said. “He’s a tough dude. He doesn’t always show it with the ‘rah rah’ on the court, but he’s built different.”
Still, if Jokic is campaigning for himself, it’s in the muted style that’s often defined his interactions with media. His teammates and Malone were willing to be a little more straightforward in OKC.
“We believe he is the sole MVP,” Peyton Watson said, “and he has been for the last four, five years.”
“As we wind down this season, this whole MVP thing is really going to pick up. And you understand that. That’s a part of it,” Malone said when asked if this is Jokic’s best season. “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’s averaging a triple-double, the guy who’s top-three in the major statistical categories (had already won three) … he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don’t think so, I think you guys are all full of (crap).”
After two showdowns in Bricktown, the latest statistical update is as follows: Jokic is averaging 29 points, 13 boards, 10.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game, all of them career-highs except the rebounds. He has tailed off from the 3-point line, ranking sixth in the league now at 43%. The advanced analytics almost entirely favor him as usual, though, if somewhat narrowly. Ten years into his career, Jokic is certifiably the Round Mound of VORP.
But the success of his team remains second to Gilgeous-Alexander’s by a wide margin, raising pertinent questions about the award’s priorities. Among them: Should win-loss record belong on that piece of paper Malone was handing out to voters?
“If you want to use that card, I’m all for it. But the one year Nikola didn’t win it, we were the No. 1 seed in the West,” he said. “And I get it. Like, it’s different for everybody. MVP, what it means for you might be different from what it means for (another voter). Cool. And again, 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 and is good for this game.
“So it’s not Nikola vs. Shai. For me, it’s me promoting my guy. Because I know what he means for this game, and if you look at it from a historical perspective, he’s doing things that no one’s ever done. And (Denver is) also the No. 2 seed in the West. So it’s not like we’re outside looking in.”
The gap in the standings is profound. After reclaiming second place from the Lakers on Monday, the Nuggets are still closer to being caught by 10th-place Dallas than catching Oklahoma City.
These teams won’t meet again to directly litigate that aspect, unless it’s for a seven-game series long after voting wraps. They could be destined for each other in the Western Conference Finals, a stage where Denver would likely be treated as an upset-worthy challenger thanks to its championship experience, its regular-season split and its Serbian star.
Jokic’s touch around the rim was the main attraction of his 15-for-20 performance Monday. It marked his highest field goal percentage in games with at least 12 baskets this season. He has 25 such games. The Nuggets became the first team to hang 140 points on the Thunder and the third to beat OKC by double digits.
Behind the scenes, the highlight to Malone occurred during a timeout. “I walked into a huddle, and he’s got the board out,” Denver’s coach recalled. “And he’s talking to some of our guys about our zone defense. ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ And when you get that from Nikola, now you’re getting everything. The leadership, the voice, the ownership of the team.”
For a superstar who leads by example more instinctively than with his mouth, the moments of vocal authority are all the more inspiring to teammates. This one might as well have been a statement of intent on a night he wanted to win at any cost.