![]() ![]() Denver was +3 for the game when Jokić was on the bench for the competitive portion of the game (Nuggets +7 in the first half in those minutes, -4 in the second half, not counting garbage time). The Suns can win from the midrange but if they don’t get stops - specifically if they don’t find someone who can slow Murray and as a team contest better at the arc - all the midrange buckets in the world will not save them.Īnother little thing that didn’t impact this game but is something to watch: The Nuggets won the non-Jokić minutes. Denver had a 130.2 offensive rating in this game. While the math is an issue for Phoenix, the bigger problem is they just are not getting stops. The Durant/Booker/Paul Suns are going to live in the midrange, but Denver has shooters and it’s not like making 16 3-pointers is some insane, unrepeatable number. Put more simply, Denver was up 27-6 on points from beyond the arc, and even the efficient shooting of the Suns could not make up the difference. Those numbers would have the Suns up in most games. In the first half, the Suns had a higher eFG% (57.5% to 55.5%) and Phoenix had shot a very good 51.7% from the midrange and 83.3% at the rim. Look at it this way: The entire Suns’ team made only one more 3-pointer than Murray. ![]() Denver won the 3-point battle by 27 points. That’s eight points more than the Nuggets.īut Denver made 16 3-pointers, while Phoenix made 7 on 23 attempts (30.4%). Phoenix is a team of midrange assassins and did a good job getting the ball into the paint - the Suns scored 72 points on 59% shooting on two-pointers in Game 1. The Suns have a math problem in this series. He said postgame, “We’re not going to win basketball games like that.” Nikola Jokić was not on top of his game (he missed a lot of tip-in bunnies) and still finished with 24 points, 19 rebounds and five assists.ĭurant was efficient for the Suns, scoring 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting, with 14 rebounds however he had one assist and seven turnovers. Josh Okogie can get the nod, but he hurts the Suns on the offensive end.ĭenver got a big game from Aaron Gordon who had 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. It’s asking a lot from Booker, who has a big offensive load to carry and would risk foul trouble. The problem for the Suns: Who do they put on Murray to slow him? Chris Paul is not that guy anymore, he’s not got the lateral movement to stay in front of Murray. He was dominant (although if you ask him, it’s simply that he’s healthy again and this is who he is). Murray from the bubble showed up in Denver and scored a game-high 34 points, hitting 6-of-10 from 3, with nine assists. 1) Jamal Murray was the best player on the floor Here are three takeaways from the Nuggets’ Game 1 win. This is what they look like when they are.ĭenver led essentially the entire way, pulled away in the fourth quarter and ran and hid in Game 1, winning at home 125-107. The Denver Nuggets would like to remind you that they have not been healthy the last couple of postseasons. We’ll see if the media panel that votes on the award agrees. This should be a celebration of the game’s best players.įor Curry, that award belongs to Joel Embiid this season. Reasonable people can and will disagree, which is why it’s unfortunate the tone of this debate got so ugly. There is no one correct way of looking at things. The question, particularly for voters, is: What do you prioritize in picking an MVP? How do you define value? Is being the best player on the best team enough? The best player in the league? Or is it a matter of the role and load a player has to carry on his team, and how he fulfills those duties? No one stat is the answer. We could spend a thousand words making Embiid’s legitimate case for MVP - then do the same for Antetokounmpo and Jokić. If I had to pick, it would be him.”Įmbiid has been more efficient with his shot, 65.1 true shooting percentage this season (up from 61.6 last season), he leads the NBA in scoring at 33 points per game while shouldering a huge defensive burden for a title contender with the fourth-best record in the league this season. That leap turned heads and put Philly in a great position. But Joel took a leap that I think a lot of people didn’t expect because he was dominant already. “Any person you pick, their body of work could be compared to Jokić or Giannis. ![]() ![]() “I would say Joel,” Curry told Bleacher Report. Stephen Curry isn’t winning it this season (only playing 53 games so far, and your team is struggling to avoid the play-in, will do that), but if he had a vote he would cast it for Embiid, he told Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT. There is a legitimate case to be made for any of the three to win MVP, and all three will get some first-place votes (which are due April 10, the day after the season ends). Joel Embiid remains the betting favorite to win MVP ( -250 at our partner, PointsBet), with Nikola Jokić (+225) as the second choice and Giannis Antetokounmpo (+550) third. ![]()
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