That was greatness of Michael Jordan caliber. That was the greatest player in the world carrying his team to victory on a night when four of his core rotational pieces and including three bigs were DNPs with Jokic as the opponent.
No J-Dub. No Chet. No Hartenstein. No Caruso. and not even the other big in Brandon Carlson.
This was epic for the second straight time this regular season in this Thunder-Nugget rivalry.
Nine players saw the floor for the Thunder and thankfully one of the nine was Ajay Mitchell in his first game back since early January. Ajay’s return was seamless with 24 points on a 9-16 night shooting the ball.
JWill was named the outstanding player of the game by Little Nick Gallo for his 29 point, 12 rebound night. I love JWill. In fact I just featured him last week on the blog for his massive game against the fading Detroit Pistons. JWill was great on a night he had to be great because none of the three white OKC Thunder centers had the what I call the special toughness to play tonight.
I hate to be even remotely negative on a night like this, but I found all three of their absences somewhat weak. It is what it is. This sure isn’t Michael Jordan’s NBA or Wilt’s, for certain… when guys played sick, bruised, or hurt…but on this night there was total clutchness from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on a night when he tied Wilt for 126 straight games scoring at least twenty points. Then put away the Denver Nuggets down the stretch with an iconic game winner which for me made this the best NBA regular season game so far this season.
This game even had another Jokic-Lu Dort flagrant foul…this one being a Flagrant 1 with no ejection. Good call…the right call despite the whining of Michael Cage. Then there was the Nugget four point play by Jokic which seemingly was going to extend this series to a second straight overtime ending inside of PayCom.
Shai’s line was 35 points, 9 rebounds, and 15 assists. Jokic’s line was 32, 14, and 13. But in this day and age of softness in the NBA there was nothing even remotely soft about Shai or his other teammates who suited up and played their guts out as if this was a playoff game.
Standing aplause by me for the nine Thunder players who gritted out this win as if it were a Game 7.
This was superb at every level.
For me…the MVP race is over unless Shai gets hurt and can’t play enough games to qualify for the regular season MVP award.
Aaron Gordon return and scored 23 points and pulled down 10 boards. Jamal had a sneaky 21 point night, but for these Nuggets to beat the Thunder…Jamal has to be better. Tim Hardaway was special for the Nuggets scoring 28 points with 8 made threes..
Christain Braun struggled and he has to play at a much higher level for the Nuggets. Cam Johnson in my mind shouldn’t have played in the second half. He’s either hurt or just not able to play at the level the Nuggets need from him given they gave up Michael’s Porter’s three point shooting to acquire him.
Upon Peyton Watson’s return…I would probably sit Cam Johnson and go with a better defender like Spencer Jones. Cam Johnson is not the kind of player who’s going to give you a rebounding and defense boost if he’s only contributing one basket from the field as he did in this game.
Great game. Bravo. A game both Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain would have enjoyed watching.
Mike J