The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers series is the most enthralling first round playoff series of the first round.
With two teams playing unbelievable basketball right now, it feels unthinkable that one of the Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers will soon be heading to elimination.
That will mean a first round exit for either Nikola Jokic and Kawhi Leonard, who are both digging in to do everything possible to fight for their teams, with the series currently level at 2-2.
Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets to a recent win in LA, his final shot converted for a buzzer-beater dunk by Aaron Gordon in the final milliseconds.
Nikola Jokic has taken a leadership role since head coach Michael Malone was fired with three games remaining of the regular season.
David Adelman is the interim coach but he has admitted he has given Jokic an element of freedom to coach from within the team.
Kendrick Perkins compared Jokic’s recent performance to legendary player coach Bill Russell.
And this comparison was also referenced by Bill Simmons on his podcast, who remarked: “He coaches the team now remember like Bill Russell was the player coach in the late sixties.”
Simmons was in attendance at the LA Clippers’ new Intuit Dome, and he believes Jokic’s performance was the highest level he has seen in person since Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals.
“He tells people where to go. There was this one moment at the end of a quarter when the Clippers were inbounding under the basket and Jokic just goes to the bench and calls for DeAndre Jordan, brings him off the bench and puts him under the basket where he wants him to be for the inbound pass.
“He’s telling everybody what to do at all times. He’s basically making the meals, he’s cutting the food for everybody and he is feeding them.
“I was saying last night, it’s the highest level I’ve seen somebody to go to in person since that LeBron 2018 game.”
Bill Simmons selecting from games he has attended is obviously a very select, limited sample size rather than comparing individual performances during that timespan in totality – but it is still an interesting comparison.
LeBron James was fighting against the tide in the 2018 NBA Finals for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors.
In Game 1 he gave it everything in an overtime game, scoring 51 points, before a perplexing play from teammate JR Smith turned the tide against the Cavaliers.
Nikola Jokic will hope his remarkable efforts do not ultimately count for nothing, with LeBron James’ Cavaliers swept 4-0 in the 2018 Finals. Game 1 was their best shot.
Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are right in their series against the Clippers, levelled at 2-2, with home advantage for two of the potentially three remaining games.
But similar to LeBron in 2018, his efforts will be in vain if the Nuggets cannot close it out.
