Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, And The Nights Where There Are No Answers

Nikola Jokic has three NBA MVP awards, an NBA championship ring, and an NBA Finals MVP award somewhere rattling around his house. He has done incredible things on the basketball court and put up some monster performances over his career, but what he did in Game 5 against the Timberwolves may very well be his masterpiece.

Jokic put up 40 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds, and zero turnovers, completely dismantling the Minnesota interior defense that had him flustered in the first two games of the series. Jokic put Rudy Gobert in the blender, leaving the 4-time DPOY seeking help from his teammates or perhaps a higher power, as Jokic gave him work for four quarters.

Jokic spent an entire game testing the will and spirit of the Timberwolves, and it felt that by the end of the game he had broken it, one pivot at a time. Gobert could only toss his hands in the air after Jokic would flip the ball into the basket, and after showing off ever post move in his bag, he had one last trick left, sinking a stepback three as the dagger. It was as demoralizing an individual performance as you can have, as he took the Wolves best defender and repeatedly showed there’s nothing he can do to slow him down, much less stop him. He never showed the same move twice, hitting Gobert with counters and then counters to his own counters, keeping him just enough off balance to create angles and windows to flip the ball into the basket — over, under, around, and through Gobert.

A night earlier, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put the Oklahoma City Thunder on his back to lead a second half comeback that evened their series with the Dallas Mavericks at 2-2. After the Dallas defense had seemingly shut off the Thunder’s water for Games 2, 3, and the first half of Game 4 with hard closeouts on shooters and walling off the rim, Gilgeous-Alexander decided he needed to do it himself, going to work in the midrange where he hit all 14 of his shots.

For Gilgeous-Alexander, his performance was borne out of necessity. The Thunder had spent two games hoping they would break out of their struggles by sticking to the game plan, but sometimes the playoffs won’t allow you to play the beautiful game. Oklahoma City seemed obsessed with creating the perfect shot, regularly passing up good looks, thinking a great one was around the corner. Dallas preyed on that, sending hard closeouts to create hesitation from shooters and knowing where that next pass was going to recover and extend possessions, forcing the Thunder into desperate late clock shots over and over.

Eventually, Gilgeous-Alexander recognized his team needed someone to go make shots to bend the Mavs defense out of shape, and he obliged with one of the great shot-making performances of this postseason. He showed he too has a wide array of moves and tricks to create separation and hit shots over even the best efforts of Dallas defenders. Even when Dallas did send extra bodies and forced him to go where they wanted him, he would still rise up and hit a shot over the corner of the backboard.

Both performances by Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander were vital to their teams getting critical wins. A win down 2-1 and a win tied 2-2 are, historically, near-necessities to win a playoff series. It wasn’t just what they did, but how they did it that matters beyond those games by reminding their opponents and themselves that when they’re at their best, there simply are no answers.

In Jokic’s case, it was a message sent (and seemingly received) by Minnesota that they don’t have a defense that can take him out of his game. After the first two games, the Timberwolves were brimming with confidence after frustrating Jokic with their waves of length. After Game 5, they’re left to search for answers, none of which seem readily apparent or attainable. While his effort to turn Gobert into BBQ chicken drew headlines, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid were on the receiving end of plenty of buckets themselves (or foul calls trying to stop him).

In Oklahoma City, I felt like Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was more important internally. The Nuggets know Jokic can turn into that kind of playoff monster, but the Thunder hadn’t yet seen SGA completely take a game over this postseason when they absolutely needed it. His aggression was something the rest of OKC’s squad fed off of, and it raised their entire level on both ends of the court. When shots aren’t falling and guys get hesitant, the entire energy level drops for a team, but you could see their confidence and belief build as SGA went into bucket mode in that second half. Eventually, Jalen Williams started to shake out of his funk, becoming more assertive in his offensive movements, and guys like Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, and Cason Wallace got good looks from three and knocked them down.

That brought the life back into this young Thunder team, and it carried over to the defensive end, where they were able to start getting the stops that got them in transition and made things even easier. The Mavs will certainly have to consider some adjustments to SGA, but I doubt they make any sweeping changes before Game 5 given how well they’ve been playing defensively. The difference going forward for the Thunder should be that belief that even if the Mavs are swarming them, they can be aggressive and attack because their star proved it can be done. He pried the lid off the basket and created some gaps in the Mavs’ armor, attacking the area of the floor Dallas is more willing to concede.

The Nuggets and Thunder are both teams that play a very fluid style, wanting the ball to move and pop, but sometimes in the playoffs you have to have a great Plan B when a defense gets locked in on how to slow your Plan A. Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are those Plan Bs, and they reminded everyone on both sides that on some nights, there’s not an answer to the question they can pose.