On March 7, Beijing time, the Nuggets sat at their home to meet the challenge of the Pelicans, who have recently gained momentum, before this game is experiencing a wave of 4 consecutive wins, and the two sides have been playing very anxiously in this game, the two sides have been fighting all the way to overtime, and relying on Jokic's excellent play, the Nuggets finally won the Pelicans 138-130 without any danger, and won 8 of the last 9 games. Jokic started 42 minutes, shot 16-of-22, slashed 46 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists on 3-of-5 three-pointers, and the plus-minus of +22 was also the highest on the team, which can be said to be the biggest contributor to the Nuggets' victory.
After this game, Jokic's probability of getting MVP rose to 42%, the first in the league, and the second and third alphabet brothers and Embiid, the combined probability is not more than One Jokic (alphabet brother 25.1%, Embiid is 11.6%), with the Nuggets still 18 games left in the regular season, if Jokic can maintain this hot momentum, it is not without a chance to "defend" the MVP award this season.
Jokic, who averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists last season, beat Embiid in one fell swoop and became the regular season MVP winner for the 20-21 season, but jokic was not taken seriously by the league this season, and before the start of the season, most of the media ignored Jokic's existence and focused on Durant, Curry, alphabet brothers and other bigger superstars. However, after playing more than 60 games this season, Jokic can also be regarded as punching these doubts with practical actions.
Because Murray continued to recuperate this season, plus Porter Jr. was also trapped in a back injury, only for the Nuggets to play 9 games to hang up the exemption card, Jokic had no choice but to continue to be a father and a mother, attacking and defending at the same time, but also to take into account the team's organizational tandem responsibility, Jokic can still average 25.8 points, 13.8 rebounds and 8 assists per game this season, and the game contribution value of 22.8 is the first in the league, which is 1.5 more than Embiid in second place.
And today this time this time against the Pelicans. Jokic also saved the Nuggets with his own strength, according to relevant statistics, in the fourth quarter and overtime, Jokic scored a total of 30 points, that is to say, in the first three savings Kiki only scored a total of 16 points, and with 70% shooting percentage to cut 45+ big triple-doubles, but also made Jokic the second player in the league after the "basketball emperor" Chamberlain, the league can achieve this feat. Nuggets coach Mike Malone talked about Jokic after the game and praised him: "That's why Jokic is the MVP! ”
On personal data, Jokic is indeed impeccable, but whether it can successfully defend the MVP depends largely on the Nuggets' record, the current Nuggets temporarily ranked sixth in the West with a record of 38 wins and 26 losses, although in the ranks of this can directly enter the playoffs, but if Jokic wants to stabilize the current position of the most popular candidate for MVP, it may still be necessary to let the Nuggets' ranking enter the top half as much as possible, after all, like Embiid's 76ers, alphabet brother's Bucks, Their teams are in the top half (second in the 76ers East and third in the Bucks), and as long as the Nuggets can make themselves into the top four before the end of the regular season, then this season's MVP will most likely be taken in by Jokic.