I think it’s fair to say that Nikola Jokic has been the best player of the playoffs so far. The so-called “playoffs MVP”, which should absolutely be an award. Maybe you could make an argument for Kawhi Leonard, but recency bias is a real thing, and that dude only scored 35 tonight compared to Jokic’s 37. Math doesn’t lie. It only misleads.
It wasn’t guaranteed to be this way. In the first game of the series against the Spurs, Jokic only took 9 shots (and had 14 assists, but that’s beside the point) in a loss. Many people, me included, took this to mean that he was going to be in one of his weird moods where he just doesn’t want to shoot the ball and is going to be all passive. Perhaps he was trying to make a point or something, but anyway, those fears were unfounded because he has been properly aggressive the rest of the playoffs.
All his per-game stats are way up. His scoring is way up, his rebounds are way up, his assists are way up. He’s leading all players in raw assists and rebounds. He’s setting career-highs, he’s getting triple-doubles, and he’s winning games as the undisputed alpha dog. Everything is running through him, unless it’s running through Jamal Murray with the intent of getting the ball to him in a pick-and-roll. Which is, apparently, the most unstoppable play on the planet when run by those two players. Must be something to do with Enes Kanter.
The fact that this dude is still on my channel is turning into a sick joke. He’s so far above my usual criteria that I feel significant pangs of guilt every time I upload a video for him. Is this what I’ve been reduced to? Pandering to the casual fan with vids of superstars? I look in the mirror, and I don’t recognize the face that I see.