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Night after night, Nikola Jokic seems to outperform his previous performances. His two-time reigning NBA MVP has another season where newly named Michael deserves to give him his Jordan MVP Award. He has a perfectly healthy Denver Nuggets team around him, and the team’s success is starting to reflect his individual accomplishments. Monday night was no exception for a big man who once again made history with unique stats in his 122-109 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jokic finished the night with 14 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds to lead the league with his 11th triple-double of the season. But it wasn’t just the triple-double that made Jokic’s performance historic. There was the fact that the Serbian big man shot his 100 percent from the field and he went 5-for-5 that night. He became the first player in NBA history to record stats of 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 15+ assists while playing flawlessly off the field.
After the game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone praised his star player for his altruistic play.
“I’ve been in the league for a long time. A lot of players know that if you hit five shots in 35 minutes, you’re going to be pissed right away.” malone said“Nicola doesn’t care, I don’t care if he’s five or twenty-five [shots]There aren’t many people like him I’ve been around. He’s got a triple-double, but he’s a true selfless superstar.”
Malone is right to admire Jokic’s selflessness. He still averages 25 points each night, but it’s not uncommon for him to have more assists than points, like Monday. The crazy part is that if Jokic needs to put up monster scoring numbers, he can easily. His scoring pales in comparison to his talent as a playmaker. His 16 assists on Monday night were his fifth-highest mark of the season, two short of his career-high 18 assists he set in 2020.
His combination of passing and scoring efficiency is unlike anything we’ve seen in a 7-footer body. He is arguably the best passer of his big man in the NBA, and placing him next to the best guard to play the game certainly makes an argument.
With a career-best field goal percentage of 61.6%, his efficiency this season tops an incredibly short list of averaging over 15 shots per game and over 60% shots from the field. Positioned. Other names on that list are Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin McHale and Zion Williamson, the latter of whom has achieved it twice, including this season. It becomes only Jokic and O’Neal. Throw in Assists (9.7) and Jokic is the only one on that peak, once again showing that he is a truly unique player.
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