It’s the little things that go a long way Nikola Jokic a three-time NBA MVP: how he “seals” his defender to take a position under the basket, how he touches the ball only with his fingertips, how he passes the ball not where his teammate is, but where he will be when he has to receive the pass, as per water polo player launches his teammates on the counterattack without putting the ball on the ground, which only wastes a lot of time.
And in race 5 of the series between his Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Jokic showed all these things. The Serbian scored 40 points with 7 rebounds and 13 assists in 41 minutes, with 15 of 22 from the field And no turnovers in a display of superiority that one can only laugh at, as Anthony Edwards said (and probably did) after the game. The Nuggets won 112-97 at Ball Arena and are now 3-2 in the seriesafter losing the first two games at home.
After a week of blathering about how “Edwards lacked help”, it was the 22-year-old former Georgia player who marked the visit in Game 5, which ended with 18 points and 9 rebounds, but with 5 of 15 shooting and 4 turnovers. Minnesota was without Mike Conleya very heavy absence, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert played two excellent games but Denver simply re-established order: they are the strongest team in the series, the reigning NBA champion and always to be beaten.
Jamal Murray he scored 17 points, Aaron Gordon he shone again with a double-double 18 points with 10 rebounds and 5 assistsKentaviuos Caldwell-Pope scored 16 points.
Jokic closed the third and decisive fourth with 16 points and 4 assistsfor the admiration of Ant Edwards: “He’s so good it makes you laugh to think about it. You can’t lose sleep over it, he’s good, I said it even after game 1 and game 2, he’s the MVP and the best player in the NBA. And he proved it in the last 3 games of the series. Tonight was special, credit to him“.
“He did it all tonight, it was fun to watch” said coach Michael Malone. Jokic closed the conversation in the fourth quarter with 3 minutes to play, with the step-back triple against poor Gobert for 106-92 Denverhis 40th point of the night.
“It’s a spectacle, the way he dismantles a defense piece by piece, how he reads the games and how he trusts his teammates. Perhaps today’s MVP award stimulated him even more, the Ball Arena was electric today and he was unstoppable” Like this Jamal Murray.
For Minnesota, Towns scored 23 points with 6 rebounds, for Gobert 18 points and 11 reboundsHowever, the Twolves shot 8 of 26 from three without being able to punish Anthony Edwards’ doubles, and allowed 55% from the field to Denver.
