NBA Fans were treated with a couple of incredible performances by two of the best offensive players that the game has seen on Tuesday night. After Stephen Curry was 52 points And 12 triples, Nikola Jokic put 61 points in the race in the Timberwolves in what was one of the most wild seasonal games he has ever seen.
For the registration, this marked the first time in the history of the NBA that two former MVP have gone for 50 points on the same night, and the second time in history that two players have gone for at least 50 points, 10 rebounds and five assists on the same night, joining Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor, who did it in 1963.
Stephen Curry Goes Wild vs. Grizzlies, cooks the 15th game of 50 race points to raise the warriors to seed No. 5
Brad Botkin
Curry was incredible on Tuesday. Jokic was even better.
The difference? Curry’s performance came in a victory, while Jokic’s performance was spoiled for a couple of glasses from Russell Westbrook in the late game that practically wrapped an extra two -time victory to Minnesota after Denver seemed to have the game in his hand.
With less than 15 seconds to play in extra time and Denver leading for one, Westbrook was in the right place at the right time when Anthony Edwards bounced in a pass from anyone’s land in his hands. Westbrook had two options at this point: push the ball to the front court and try to take it to a better free throw shooter, since the wolves would have been forced to fail, or simply hit the gas and load with the advantage 2 against 1 before him.
He chose the latter, and it was not a terrible decision. Whether it arrived through two free throws or a transition cube, the nuggets were only going to climb three, over time still on the clock for the wolves, anyway. The problem, to be clear, was not Westbrook’s decision to go through the tray.
The problem, first, was Westbrook absolutely smoking The tray, and second, enters Nickeil Alexander-Walker in an attempt of 3 points with a tenth of the remaining in the clock at the other end.
Alexander-Walker made the first two free throws for the 140-139 victory of the Wolves and, man, what shame for that performance of Jokic was wasted in the last 11 seconds.
It happens. This was an incredible round -trip game with plays and shots with syndeon at both ends for what seemed about 30 minutes in a row. Westbrook will be started by this, and it is true that the placement was not even close and the decision to fly so recklessly in a 3 -point shooter was poor, even if the paranoid closures are baked in those situations of last second place.
With the loss, nuggets are now tied in the loss column with the Lakers for seeds 3-4, while the wolves are tied with the Grizzlies for seed No. 6 with six remaining games. Anthony Edwards was almost equally brilliant in the stretch for the Timberwolves, hitting a variety of clutch shots on the way to 34 points, 10 boards and eight assists.
But this was Jokic’s night. He loaded 10 assists and 10 rebounds to go with his 61 points, which makes him the highest total points into a triple double in the history of the NBA. The only two other players in the Triple-Dock Club of 60 points are James Harden, whose 2018 effort arrived with 11 assists and 10 rebounds against magic, and the absurd performance of Luka Doncic that came with 21 rebounds and 10 assists against the Knicks in 2022.
Somehow, the most impressive number in Jokic’s main book might have not been the points, rebounds or assists. The man played 52 minutes. After returning to the 6:28 mark of the second quarter, he never went to the bank again. Make the calculations, and that is more than 40 consecutive minutes that Jokic played.
Unfortunately, it did not end in a victory for Nuggets. That is not to take anything from the Timberwolves, who scored a monstrous victory and played basketball with lights despite two miserable possessions with the possibility of winning the game at the end of the regulation and the first extra weather. He simply feels like Jokic deserved that victory.
