Nuggets, Thunder and Nikola Jokić
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It's mid-May, and we still do not yet (officially) know who the 2025 NBA MVP is.
6hon MSN
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.
Nikola Jokić lived up to his nickname on Friday, arriving at the Ball Arena wearing a Joker-inspired purple and green suit before helping the Denver Nuggets to a dramatic, overtime 113-104 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of their playoff series.
Denver was last in the league in 3-point attempts per game during the regular season (31.9), but that number has jumped to 38.5 3PA in the four contests against OKC. In their first-round series versus the LA Clippers, the Nuggets fired up an average of just 29.0 3PA across seven games.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets will meet for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals tonight.
Gilgeous-Alexander ignited Oklahoma City's win with a clutch fourth-quarter takeover to put the Thunder one win away from the Western Conference finals.
In addition to his game-saving defensive plays in the series’ first two contests, Bridges has made up for offensive struggles with averages of 5.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.7 steals while playing a whopping 44.0 minutes per game.