MVP race takes centre stage as SGA, Thunder battle Jokic, Nuggets on TSN
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A day after Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led his Thunder to a convincing win over the Denver Nuggets, the Western Conference’s two top teams will go head-to-head once again Monday night in Oklahoma City.
Watch the matchup LIVE at 8pm ET/5pm PT on TSN1, TSN4, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
In a meeting of the league’s two MVP front-runners, Gilgeous-Alexander stole the show from Nikola Jokic, scoring a game-high 40 points with eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks as the Thunder rolled to a 127-103 win.
The victory was OKC’s seventh in a row and moved them to 53-11 on the season. They’re on pace to win more than 80 per cent of their games for the first time in franchise history and own a 12-game lead atop the West with just under a quarter of the season to go.
With the top seed out West all but locked up, the main storyline with the Thunder for a long time has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP battle with Jokic. While the reigning MVP was only one assist shy of a triple-double Sunday with 24 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, Gilgeous-Alexander turned in his 11th 40-piece of the season in a lopsided win.
SGA has now scored at least 30 points 40 different times this season, becoming just the sixth player in NBA history to score 30 or more at least that many times in three consecutive years.
Sunday’s outing upped his NBA-lead in scoring to 32.9 per game, putting him two full points ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks in second.
In a head-to-head sense, Sunday was a clear win for SGA and may have been just what he needed to recapture momentum after Jokic’s game Friday night against the Phoenix Suns. Jokic made NBA history in an overtime win, becoming the first player ever to have at least 30 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists in the same game. The 30-year-old Serbian finished with 31 points, 22 assists and 21 rebounds as Denver pulled out a 149-141 victory.
“I can’t describe him, so don’t ask me to,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said after the game. “The guy is just an incredible player, and when you are one of one in this league, with the tremendous history of this league, that says a lot. There’s a lot of good players in this league, but Nikola, in my opinion, is just in a class all by himself.”
Jokic defeated Gilgeous-Alexander in last year’s race, winning his third MVP trophy in four years. His numbers are just as good – if not better – this year, but the Thunder’s overwhelming success from a team perspective seems to be tipping the scales.
The Hamilton, Ont., native is currently -600 to win MVP on FanDuel with Jokic at +430, representing an implied probability of 85.7 per cent for Gilgeous-Alexander and 18.8 per cent for the Nuggets star.
Jokic praised his MVP-race opponent after Sunday’s game.
“He doesn’t complicate things. He knows what he needs to go. He’s leading the team and he’s really good for them.”