Nikola Jokić has been astonishingly good throughout these playoffs. He has led his team, the Denver Nuggets, to their first ever Western Conference Championship, critically putting up historically solid performances along the way. And just days after suffering a stinging defeat that left a bad taste in their mouths after losing at home for the first time in these playoffs, his team needed his efforts once again in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Boy, did they ever get it!
Jokić put together a historical performance once again, earning the first 30-20-10 game by any player in NBA Finals history. In fact, Jokić scored 32 points, earned 21 rebounds, and also had 10 assists. He was absolutely essential in leading the Nuggets to earn a road win of their own against the Heat, taking a 2-1 series lead. It also gives the Nuggets home court advantage again in these NBA Finals.
Some players - probably quite a few, actually - would likely have their chests puffed out with pride after such a performance. But Jokić showed how much of a team player he is, showing little pride, much less arrogance, concerning the record. He clearly was more pleased that his team returned the favor against Miami, scoring a road win in answer to the Heat's road win in Denver in Game 2:
"I mean, to be honest, not much," Jokic said, when asked what the record means to him. "I'm just glad that we won the game. It was a big one for us just because they won in our arena, so we didn't want to go down 2-1."
Yet, it is not a minor feat, and he could be forgiven for taking pride, if he actually had taken pride. Here is a snippet from the CBS Sports article by Jack Maloney which kind of puts this achievement in some perspective:
Jokic's career is littered with notes about him reaching statistical milestones, but even for him this one is pretty special. There have been well over 100,000 NBA games played between the regular season and playoffs, and this was the 46th time that someone has had a 30/20/10 performance. Even more stunning is that there have only been five such outings in the playoffs, and Jokic now has three of them, with two coming during this postseason.
Again, very impressive.
Perhaps most impressive is that his sole focus was on the team, winning on the road and retaking the lead in this series. Jokić has clearly been huge in not only leading this Nuggets franchise to their first ever NBA Finals appearance, but now has them needing only two more wins to earn their first ever NBA Championship, to boot. And the way that he is playing, it feels like he will finally lead them to the promised land.
Nikola Jokic records first 30-20-10 game in NBA Finals history to lead Nuggets past Heat in Game 3 y Jack Maloney, June 8, 2023:
Jokic has more such games in the playoffs (three) than the rest of the NBA combined (two)
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nikola-jokic-records-first-30-20-10-game-in-nba-finals-history-to-lead-nuggets-past-heat-in-game-3/
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