DENVER (AP) — The night before the NBA Most Valuable Player was announced, Nikola Jokic had 39 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 97-87 victory over Phoenix on Monday night. led 2-0 over the Suns in the Western Conference semifinals.
“I love an aggressive Nikola Jokic,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after Jokic hit 17 field goals on a bad night for Jamal Murray Michael Porter Jr., who missed 17 of 22 between the two.
“Nikola is an MVP for a reason,” Malone said. “He can dominate a game. He can win in many ways (…). I love a guy who gets to the basket, imposes his will on the other team. And that last quarter, wow, 14 points for that team, 28% from the field, 0 of 9 for 3-pointers?
Devin Booker led Phoenix with 35 points and Kevin Durant added 24, but between the two they missed a whopping 32 shots, including 14 3-pointers.
Jokic shone the night before to find out if he has surpassed Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo to win his third straight NBA Most Valuable Player award, recently renamed in honor of Michael Jordan.
“I can’t think about it,” Jokic said.
Malone said his star isn’t motivated by winning more MVP awards, but by leading the Nuggets to their first NBA title.
He certainly showed his credentials, with 26 points and 12 rebounds after the break, when he dominated both sides of the court and prevented the Suns from tying the series, which travels to Phoenix on Friday for Game 3.
“You have to believe this is going to be on our side soon,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We have to go home and get to work. That’s where we are right now.”
The Suns held Murray to 10 points 48 hours after he had 34, but they had no answers for Jokic.
“We slowed down Murray a little bit,” Durant said. “Obviously he was good at Game 1. But Jokic was doing a little too much. I think we limited them to 97 total points. Normally that’s a win for us.”
