Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, fresh off of two highly-impressive performances, had a little to say about his MVP chances on Monday.
Jokic outplayed fellow MVP candidate and point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 140–127 victory. Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points, three rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal but Jokic lit things up all the more with 35 points, 18 rebounds, eight assists, a block, and a steal. That’s just three days after his historic 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 22 assists in a 149–141 overtime victory against the Phoenix Suns on March 7.
While Jokic became the first-ever player to achieve that feat, Jokic chasing history isn’t anything new for his career. Just in the MVP department alone, he has three at age 30, which gives him a shot to chase the top of the list where five players have four or more MVP awards.
Jokick averages 28.9 points, 13 rebounds, and 10.5 assists per game, and he shoots 57.7 percent from the field. He has the Nuggets (42–23) poised to finish with the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference—especially with LeBron James out for the third-place Los Angeles Lakers (40–23).
A 2018 pick out of Kentucky by the Los Angeles Clippers, Gilgeous-Alexander is having the best year of his career. Gilgeous-Alexander, who joined the Thunder via a trade in 2019, averages 32.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game.
He previously made runner-up for MVP to Jokic in 2024. On Monday, the Nuggets slowed him down to bounce back from Sunday’s 127–103 loss to the Thunder where Gilgeous-Alexander put up 40 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks.
“Just to give a different look,” Jokic said about the difference on Monday. “He’s definitely a top player in this league. He’s really talented.”
“He’s so crafty. His midrange is really, really, really historical, I’m going to say,” Jokic added. “He’s a great player, so we try to make him take bad shots or just get rid of the ball.”
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone not only came up with a plan to slow down Gilgeous-Alexander, Malone believes Jokic should win MVP. Jokic previously won MVPs in 2024, 2022, and 2021.
“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 was averaging a triple-double, the guy who’s top three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one’s ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10,” Malone added.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s team holds one advantage over the Nuggets as the Western Conference’s likely top seed. The Thunder (53–12) have an 11 game lead over the Nuggets in the standings but that doesn’t deter Jokic.
“We didn’t win a lot (before Monday) against the top teams,” Jokic said. “Hopefully, we can show ourselves that we can be good when we need it the most.”
That could help his cause of the Nuggets finishing closer to the Thunder. However, he didn’t win the award in 2023 when the Nuggets had the top seed in the West as the award went to Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid.
