The NBA playoffs set up the biggest stage for the league’s stars to make their mark. Nowhere is this more clear this season than with the top two MVP candidates, and , squaring off in the Western Conference’s second round.
The pair have been battling it out in the MVP race all season, so it would only make sense that their teams, the and , would run into each other while chasing the NBA’s ultimate goal, the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Despite the fanfare around the matchup, the MVP is a regular-season award, and both players recorded memorable seasons in their own, unique ways.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the 68-win Thunder to the West’s top seed while averaging a league-leading 32.7 points per game while adding 5.0 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game on 51.9% shooting. Oklahoma City finished 16 games ahead of the No. 2 seed in the regular season in one of the most impressive runs in recent memory.
Meanwhile, Jokic was putting together arguably his best statistical season while guiding the Nuggets to the No. 4 seed in the West. He averaged a triple-double this season, finishing the regular season with averages of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists. If he were to win the award, it would be his fourth MVP in five seasons and he would become one of just five players in NBA history to claim MVP honors four times.
star rounds out the MVP finalists after averaging 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists this season.
NBA reporter Tim Bontemps’ final MVP straw poll and awards ballot reveal that while it’s a tight race, Gilgeous-Alexander held a slight lead at the end of the regular season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | Point guard | Oklahoma City Thunder
76 games | 32. 7 PPG | 5 RPG | 6.4 APG
Nikola Jokic | Center | Denver Nuggets
70 games | 29. 6 PPG | 12.7 RPG | 10.2 APG
Giannis Antetokounmpo | Forward | Milwaukee Bucks
67 games | 30.4 PPG | 11.9 RPG | 6.5 APG
1. ,
2. ,
3. ,
4. ,
5. ,
Just about every season, there are several deserving MVP candidates. And this year’s race truly went down to the final day between Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, the league’s two best players, both of whom have put together unbelievable seasons.
The Thunder, behind Gilgeous-Alexander’s league-leading 32.7 points per game while shooting 51.9% from the field, became the seventh team in NBA history to win at least 68 games. Jokic, of course, had a historic statistical season, finishing in the top three in points (29.6), rebounds (12.7) and assists (10.2) while shooting 57.6% overall and 41.7% from 3-point range. Truly video game stuff.
While going back and forth between Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic over the past several weeks, this quote from since-fired Nuggets coach Michael Malone has been weighing on my mind. “If you didn’t know Nikola had won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper … he wins 10 times out of 10,” Malone said last month.
“And if you don’t think so, you guys are full of s—.”
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In mid-February, the second of ESPN’s three NBA most valuable player straw polls showed Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with a comfortable — if not ironclad — lead over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
Six weeks later, the race is virtually unchanged.
If the results from our final straw poll are accurate — for each of the past five seasons, they have been — Gilgeous-Alexander will claim his first MVP award. And in a poll that mirrors the league’s official voting and was conducted over a 24-hour period Sunday and Monday, Gilgeous-Alexander claimed 77 of 100 first-place votes.
He finished second on the remaining 23 ballots for 931 total points, while Jokic finished with 769. After the two stars received all but one of the first- and second-place votes in the second round of polling back in February, this edition was a clean sweep — something that hadn’t happened across the 19 previous straw polls conducted since the start of the 2016-17 season.
That dominance atop the ballot goes hand in hand with what both players have shown on the court.
Despite Gilgeous-Alexander’s lead, Jokic is presenting perhaps his best MVP case.
