Nikola Jokić is the best basketball player on the planet, and he was also, importantly, the NBA’s best player this season. But he is also almost certainly going to fall short in MVP voting to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for reasons that were on full display in Game 5.
From 10,000 feet, it’s pretty simple: The Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 5, a 112-105 barnburner, just as they won more games than any other team in the league this season. On the flip side, Jokić’s Denver Nuggets lost despite him being the best player by a wide margin with 44 points poured in from every conceivable, and inconceivable, spot on the floor.
Drill down on as many granular points as you’d like, but the MVP debate, in the end, really is this simple: Jokić did more, Gilgeous-Alexander won more, and to the victor go the spoils.
This isn’t meant to diminish Gilgeous-Alexander’s likely MVP victory. He was spectacular all season, just as he was spectacular in this game, finishing with 31 points, seven assists, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. When it mattered most, SGA either scored or assisted six of Oklahoma City’s final nine buckets — including this dagger 3 to push OKC’s lead to six with under a minute to play.
Great shot. Great player. But you want to see an even greater shot by an even greater player? Have a look at this piece of work from Jokić:
While Gilgeous-Alexander got between 13 and 18 points from five of his teammates on Tuesday, Denver’s non-Jokić cast put just three players in double figures and shot 31.9% (23 for 72) as a group. As Jokić did everything in his power to hang on to what was a nine-point Denver lead with 13 fourth-quarter points on 4-of-6 shooting, his teammates made just one of their 15 shots, and none of their 10 3-pointers, over the final 12 minutes.
One bucket. That’s the help Jokić got when it was all on the line. Now, just as designating Jokić as the best player isn’t meant to shine a dimmer light on SGA, underscoring Jokić’s relatively inferior support staff isn’t meant to slight the virtues of a Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon, both of whom have proven to be cut from championship cloth and have pulled plenty of weight in this particular postseason.
It just is what it is. In this series, SGA’s team is better — as was the case all season. And sure, the MVP often comes from the best team, but not always. Jokić, in fact, has won three of the last four MVPs, and the one season that he didn’t was the one that Denver finished as the West’s No. 1 seed.
Jokić didn’t lose the MVP that season because he wasn’t the best player on the best team, but rather, because it felt, quite simply, like Joel Embiid’s time. Similarly, this whole season has felt like Gilgeous-Alexander’s time. And despite Jokić’s superhuman efforts to lift a more limited team to heights only he can reach, this series is starting to feel the same way.