Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets They are experiencing a season that is anything but simple. The Serbian pvot, current NBA MVP, began the course being more of a protagonist due to his fight with Markieff Morris or their continuous discussions with referees that for some numbers that would once again place him as the strongest candidate to repeat the crown as the best player of the regular season. To make matters worse, injuries wreaked havoc in the locker room of the Colorado team, which saw its price drop several integers in the NBA pools.
Badly done. It is in these conditions that the Balkan character of a player who is on his way to becoming unrepeatable in NBA history. Beyond that perennial smile and that conception of basketball as a show, within his body Jokic contains a bomb-proof competitiveness that forces him to get the best of himself when the circumstances are most pressing. As is happening now in Denver.
Nikola Jokic has put on mvp suit, race that right now leads comfortably ahead of Antetokounmpo and Embiid, and keeps the Denver Nuggets in the running for the top four in the West (sixth to two games of the Jazz) in a season without Jamal Murray or without Michael Porter. It does not matter, with this version of the Serbian it is enough to stay afloat.
The Balkan pvot returned to sit chair against the New Orleans Pelicans (victory by 105-116) with a new triple-double after signing 29 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. is he the sixth triple-double so far in January, which makes him the second center in history to achieve this statistic. Something that I only got Wilt Chamberlain with whom he has already shared numerical feats on more than one occasion.
“It’s just the MVP doing MVP stuff”. Aaron Gordon summarizes in this way what has become routine for a huge Jokic throughout the month of January (10-4 for the Nuggets with 27 points, 13.5 rebounds and 8.5 assists on average) but that has left its most lethal version for the last eight games: 29.1 points, 13.1 rebounds, 10.5 assists with 59% shooting from the field, 45% from three pointers and 93% from free throws.
Numbers that go beyond the statistical sheet and that translate into the feeling of being in front of a unique player in history. A different pvot who has always had to deal with the image he projects because of his physique. A body that led him to be ruled out by Bara at the time and that made him not be chosen in the 2014 draft until 41st place and that today he has become the undisputed favorite to be king of the NBA.
Nikola Jokic seems launched for his second consecutive MVP, but he knows that to be crowned again he will have to leave behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, second in the race according to the NBA, who is not going to make it easy. The Greek, current champion and Finals MVP, also boasts statistics and against the Knicks he added his 15 consecutive game adding at least 25 points (he made 38) for the fifth-best streak in Bucks history. The other four were the work of the same player: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The Utah Jazz are living a month of January to forget and have gone from fighting with the Phoenix Suns y los Golden State Warriors for the head of the west let’s see how Memphis Grizzlies they passed them on the right as the third power in the conference. Those from Salt Lake City seem to have lost their identity and after the setback against the Tennessee team (119-109) they accumulate 10 losses in the last 12 games disputed.
RESULTS OF THE NBA DAY
- Magic 119-103 Pistons
- Hornets 117-114 Lakers
- Hawks 108-92 Celtics
- Pelicans 105-116 Nuggets
- Heat 121-114 Clippers
- Rockets 110-125 Trail Blazers
- Grizzlies 119-109 Jazz
- Thunder 110-113 Pacers
- Spurs 131-122 Bulls
- Suns 134-124 Timberwolves
- Bucks 123-108 Knicks
What better way to celebrate your first All Star start than by making history! that’s what he did Ja Morant in the last victory of the Memphis Grizzlies against the Utah Jazz. A game in which the new NBA star ended up with 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, achieving the highest-scoring triple-double in Tennessee franchise history.
From last season’s Most Improved Player to one of the main reasons for the Knicks’ shipwreck this season. Julius Randle, which is beginning to sound transferable in New York, once again experienced a fateful night in shooting (9 points) in the New Yorkers’ loss to the Bucks and already adds more games with less than 10 points than games over 30 in this campaign.
This time it is not a specific play but a praise to one of the best boards in the NBA. In a season full of injuries (Adebayo, Lowry…) and casualties due to COVID that led him to give prominence to players like Patriotic o Struss, Erik Spoelstra He has shown that he is one of the best coaches in the NBA (some said that he only won by having LeBron) and has led the Miami Heat to the top of the Eastern Conference.
They remember that In 2016 DeAndre Jordan was part of the best quintet of the season in the NBA? And that in 2017 he disputed the All Star? Well, it seems that from that player who marveled at the Clippers along with Chris Paul (credit to yours) only the name and surname remain. The pvot is one of the big names in the Lakers’ crisis and he doesn’t help to take off the poster with games like the one he did against the Hornets.
