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Nikola Jokić Bolstered His MVP Case With … His Defense?

Nikola Jokić’s case to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award for a second-straight season is quite compelling.   The Joker finished in the top 10 in points (27.1), assists (7.9) and rebounds (13.8) per game while shooting an astonishing 58.3 percent from the field. As FiveThirtyEight’s Robert O’Connell wrote recently, no high-scoring big man has […]

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We Don’t Talk Enough About Nikola Jokić’s Scoring

Here is as satisfying a highlight as this NBA season will produce: That’s reigning MVP Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets giving the business to Sacramento’s Damian Jones earlier this month. Like most of the Serbian center’s best plays, it begs for metaphor — a boulder running a slalom course, maybe — but the bare-bones […]

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We Know About Portland’s Prolific Offense. Can Its Much-Maligned Defense Level Up?

The Portland Trail Blazers finished the regular season ranked sixth place in the Western Conference, escaping the play-in tournament for their eighth-straight playoff appearance. Much of the team’s success remains centered on its high-powered offense: The Blazers’ offensive efficiency of 117.1, per NBA.com, trailed only the Nets’ 117.3, marking their third-straight season in the top […]

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Michael Porter Jr.’s Breakout Is Real

When star guard Jamal Murray went down with a torn ACL in mid-April, it was easy to assume that the Denver Nuggets would fall back from the pack of contenders atop the Western Conference. When both Murray’s backup, Monte Morris, and starting wing Will Barton joined Murray on the sideline with matching hamstring injuries soon […]

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