What pizza rats are to New York, what fountains are to Kansas City, MVPs are to Denver. Come for the sunshine. Stay for the reign.
“I asked him a long time ago, ‘Who is your least favorite person to play against? Or guy that guards you best?’” Nuggets wing Peyton Watson said of teammate and presumed NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic after the latter dropped 41 points on Minnesota’s top-ranked defense.
“He said, ‘Really? Nobody. I kill everybody.’ And I never asked him again.”
One can’t be stopped. The other can’t be caught. Jokic and Nathan MacKinnon are engines of the Nuggets and Avalanche, respectively, Kings of Ball Arena. Denver’s immovable object and its irresistible force.
When your children ask you why life isn’t fair, gently remind them that while everybody in the free world could watch Russell Wilson ignore his tight ends and slot receivers for three hours, Jokic and MacKinnon perform sporting sonatas in comparative darkness.
Behind the Comcast-Kroenke TV Iron Curtain, Mack Daddy and the Joker didn’t just make magic this week. They hammered home closing arguments for taking home MVP honors in the NHL and NBA, respectively. They produced two of the greatest individual performances over a 48-hour stretch in Ball Arena history.
On Tuesday night, MacKinnon put up a hat trick on the hapless Minnesota Wild. That gave the speedy forward 51 goals and 137 points with two regular-season games to go.
On Wednesday evening, Jokic might’ve done Nasty Nate one better. Big Honey torched the Timberwolves and star center Rudy Gobert, the likely NBA Defensive Player of the Year, for a double-double. More importantly, his killer night leapfrogged the Nuggets past Minnesota for the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference’s playoff bracket.
“Of course they missed (Karl-Anthony Towns),” said the Joker, whose Nuggets close out the regular season with a two-game road swing at San Antonio on Friday and at Memphis on Sunday. “But it was just one of those nights, probably.”
It’s been one of those years, assuredly. Despite the predictable protests of comedians Kevin Hart — “It’s not good for the NBA. Joker cannot win another MVP,” he groaned on “NBA Unplugged” — and Cedric The Entertainer, the league’s top individual honor has been Jokic’s to lose ever since Joel Embiid’s knee gave out two months ago.
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Although we’ll tell ya what: If you’re still stuck as to whether The Sombor Shuffler is worthy of a third MVP trophy in four years, let’s apply the Minnesota test.
The Timberpups rolled into the Mile High City with the top defense in the NBA. Minny’s long and physical, a roster loaded with young (Anthony Edwards), old (Mike Conley) and lovable (Monte Morris) pests. Here’s how the West’s top three MVP candidates — Jokic, Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — have fared against the Wolves and how those numbers stack up when normalized to 36 minutes per game:
• Joker: 2-2 record, 33.5 points, 11.9 rebounds, 4.53 assists
• Luka: 1-1 record (one inactive), 33.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 9.6 assists
• SGA: 2-2 record, 36.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists
“That (was) a big one for (Jokic), because they’re trying to do junk defenses and junk it up,” said Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, who dished out nine dime against Minnesota. “This (was) a big game for him. But you know what’s great about him? He just treats it like any other game.”
It wasn’t. Nuggets coach Michael Malone gave his playoff rotation a little test run, running AG out as a five with Denver’s second unit, just as he did during the Nuggs’ championship run last year. Ball Arena rocked with postseason juice and rolled with a postseason stakes.
And perhaps never moreso than with 2:46 left in the third quarter, when Jokic broke free at midcourt, seized a gap in the lane and barged into a waiting Gobert, drawing the and-1 on a runner in the lane. His basket sliced the deficit to three, sending the crowd into a tizzy and the Minnesota center into a rage worthy of Yosemite Sam.
“His discipline, his focus, his level of commitment to the game of basketball and to his body is second to none,” Gordon said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that works harder than he does. Everything that he gets, he deserves.”
Jokic and MacKinnon have completely different body types, different strengths, different skill sets in different sports. They’ve got the same vision. The same IQ. The same tide that lifts all boats around them. They’re both driven like a ’97 Ford Windstar, perfectionists to the core, competitors to the last.
I mean, what else would you call a guy, I asked Watson late Wednesday, who runs around with Gobert all up in his face, and nails 16 of 20 shots anyway?
To this, the young Nugget cupped a hand to his mouth, calling out to the Joker as the MVP sauntered to his locker stall. An audience of one.
“Baaaaaaah,” Watson bleated, grinning at his Serbian pal. “(He’s) the GOAT.
“I think because he goes out and he’s so dominant, so often, people take it for granted.”
Don’t. No pro town has been the home to NHL and NBA MVPs in the same season since Los Angeles in 1989. Thirty-five years ago, Tinseltown had Earvin Johnson sharing the spotlight with Wayne Gretzky.
Magic and The Great One then. Joker and Nate now. Who needs Hollywood? There’s no better place to see the stars, gleaming on a clear, cool, spring night, than from a Mile High.
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