For their 12th straight victory at home, Nikola Jokic drops 21 and takes 18 rebounds to crush the Suns 126-97
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Nikola Jokic
The Denver Nuggets defeated the worn-out and undermanned Phoenix Suns 126-97 on Wednesday night, with Nikola Jokic scoring 21 points, pulling down 18 rebounds, and handing out nine assists before sitting out the fourth. As the Nuggets won for the 14th time in 17 games, Bones Hyland scored 21 points and Jamal Murray had 16. They were tied with Memphis for first place in the Western Conference at the midway mark of the season.
Hyland, who made five of Denver’s 15 3-pointers, stated, “But we’re not satisfied.” The Suns ran out of gas while playing a back-to-back at altitude after winning against Golden State the previous night despite playing without four starters and six rotation players. Josh Okogie scored 14 points and nine rebounds to go with Torrey Craig’s 16 points for the Suns. Jokic’s no look pass to Gordon was hailed by Nuggets supporters on Twitter.
“They posted up Jokic early and just flattened us out (defensively),” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “And he does a really good job of finding the open man or scoring.” Phoenix committed an 8-second violation to begin the second quarter, and things only got worse from there. Denver pushed its advantage to 23 points as Hyland made all four of his 3-pointers in the quarter, Jokic grabbed a rebound and put it back with only one hand, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made his fourth 3-pointer of the half without missing. As the lead grew to 31 points in the third quarter, Jokic had nine points and nine rebounds. In the fourth quarter, the two-time reigning MVP chose to take a break rather than attempt his 12th triple-double of the year against the outclassed Suns.
Ignoring Nikola Jokic’s brilliant campaign, Skip Bayless tweeted, “Joel Embiid is the MVP!”
The Philadelphia 76ers have been on a roll. Amazingly, the team has won 7 out of the last 10 games. Joel Embiid has been quietly going above and beyond at a time when other players like Nikola Jokic and Jayson Tatum are soaking all the attention. Due to the efforts of this individual, Philadelphia is currently proudly holding the fourth spot, just behind the Bucks and in front of the Cavaliers. That’s fantastic. But will it be enough to win Joel Embiid the MVP award this year?
The NBA MVP ladder has been quite competitive thus far. After all, this season has seen a number of athletes surpass their previous accomplishments. Among them are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic, a duo that has frequently been mentioned when discussing MVP. But evidently things would be very different if Skip Bayless had his way.
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Ishaan Tewari
(13 Articles Published)