Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic won his third MVP award Wednesday, beating young Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Mavericks leader Luka Doncic. Jokic and the Nuggets are currently trailing the Minnesota Timberwolves 2-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals, the big man still took a moment to thank his team for the accomplishment.

“It’s got to start with the teammates; without them, I cannot do nothing,” Jokic said Wednesday on Inside the NBA on TNT. “Coaches, players, organization, medical staff, strength coaches, development coaches. It is all one big circle. But I cannot be whatever I am without them.”

Jokic, usually a casual presence in interviews, appeared to be very happy during the segment. He bantered with Shaquille O’Neal, who told him to his face that he believed Gilgeous-Alexander deserved the award. Jokic went on to say that many players deserved it and that it likely came down to minimal differences in play.

Though Jokic seemed to appreciate the honor, his third MVP in four years, he has always stated that personal awards are not nearly as important to him as team accomplishments. After winning his first NBA championship with the Nuggets last year, the chances of a repeat victory are crumbling at the hands of Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves.

Instead of an MVP award, Edwards has earned a rarer and potentially more distinctive honor in recent weeks. After a superstar-caliber, series-sweeping performance against the Suns, in which he averaged 31 points per game and two road wins over the Nuggets, the young, swaggering point guard has begun to earn comparisons to Michael Jordan.

For his part, Edwards has tried to downplay these comparisons, claiming that he cannot be expected to size up to a six-time NBA champion. On the other hand, after losing to Denver in four straight games last year, the Timberwolves’ improvement in the 2023-24 season has been drastic. Edwards can take a sizeable amount of credit for that. In Games 1 and 2 against Denver, he scored 43 and 27 points, respectively.

As Jokic turns his attention back to his team for Game 3, he finds himself in an unfamiliar position – he and the Nuggets have not trailed in a playoff series since 2022. As the team prepares for two road games in Minnesota, it will be paramount to win at least one, if not both, of those games to have any realistic chance of moving on to the Western Conference Final.

Covid-19 has ravaged the NBA, and another game will have to be postponed. The game between the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors, meant to be played last night, will have to wait after the Nuggets did not have the eight healthy players required for a game. This is the eleventh game the NBA has postponed for COVID reasons.

Warriors forward Draymond Green voiced his frustrations on Twitter.

“How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to prevent this from happening?” Green said. “Is that not a competitive advantage for other teams? The guys we didn’t have due to the protocol list played no role in Tuesday’s loss? Pick a side but don’t straddle the fence.”

Green’s insinuation that the Nuggets 89-86 win on Tuesday was unfair came from the fact that the Warriors weren’t at full strength either – they also had key players in Covid protocol including Green himself and point guard Jordan Poole. Green also argued that the Nuggets have an advantage when the game is made up since it would likely add a back-to-back game on the Warriors schedule.

“So when the game is rescheduled (which will probably take a day away from our “break”), we will play them at full strength… But they got to sneak a win when we weren’t at full strength, only two days ago??? Let’s make it make some sense here.”

The Nuggets are without coach Michael Malone, two assistant coaches, forwards Jeff Green and Zeke Nnaji, guard Bones Hyland. This adds to the eight players that were already out due to injury and non-COVID-related illnesses.

The Nuggets are scheduled to play the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center tomorrow while next up for the Warriors is tomorrow night’s game against the Utah Jazz.

The first round series between the Jazz and Nuggets has been highlighted by gaudy stat lines and finals scores. There has not been as many highlights on the defensive end of the floor. The series main throughly has been the back and forth between Jazz guard Donavan Mitchell, who was the leading scorer at 36.5 points per game heading into Sunday’s game and Jamal Murray who joined Mitchell as one of the five players to score 50-plus twice in a series-Mitchell did it earlier in this series.

On Sunday night, the Nuggets were facing elimination having fallen down three to one in the series, but now after their 119-107 victory they have tied it up at three and taken it to a deciding game seven.

Murray has been a revelation this series, while there were always flashes that he was a special talent he has been inconsistent and never averaged over 20 points a game. Last season, the Nuggets were taken to seven games by a mediocre Spurs team, a series that saw games where Murray would score six points on 2-6 shooting.

The most important part if being a star is showing up every night, and while Murray had shown flashes, this feels like his true coming out party because he hasn’t had his usual disappearance in one game.Game seven feels like, if he is going to take the next step and truly become a star in this league, he needs to come through on Wednesday night.

With the Clippers waiting in round two, a bad match up for both Utah and Denver, after dispatching the Dallas Mavericks in six, they will be a tough test for whomever comes out of this game. In a strange year where so many factors are taken out of these playoff games, it doesn’t seem to matter that whomever wins game seven will  likely get smoked by L.A. Games like these give these players the chance to show who they are and, maybe, even find out for themselves.

During a Snapchat Q&A, Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. claimed that COVID-19 was a conspiracy meant to control the world’s population. “Personally, I think the coronavirus is being used obviously for a bigger agenda,” Porter, 22, said on Snapchat. “It’s being used for population control in just terms of being able to control the masses of people. I mean, because of the virus the whole world is being controlled. You’re required to wear masks. And who knows what will happen when this vaccine comes out? You might have to have the vaccine in order to travel. Like, that would be crazy.”

Porter Jr. was reportedly reprimanded by Nuggets exec Tim Connelly. Connelly did not release a statement about Porter Jr.’s comments or their conversation, but Nuggets head coach Mike Malone spoke to reporters on Wednesday and supported Porter Jr’s right to free speech. “Obviously, I’m not the thought police. I’m not going to tell any of our players what they can and can’t say. All I would say is just be sensitive to the current situation in our country and throughout the world in regards to coronavirus,” Malone said. “Michael Porter and any other player on our roster, they’re entitled to their opinions and ability to have free speech, and I will respect that as long as it doesn’t become a distraction. What Michael stated, being around our players this morning at breakfast and practice, has not become a distraction at all.”

There have been some bad looks coming out of the NBA bubble most notably perhaps the NBA player most prone to poor behavior, Dwight Howard, questioning why payers had to wear masks on campus and having been disciplined for not wearing one while around other people.

Joel Embiid got the crowd going during the 76ers 97-92 victory over the Nuggets at home on Tuesday. After getting fouled, Embiid fell forward and made a no-look finger roll with his back to the basket. Feeling himself, he strolled over to near center court and gave a little “shimmy” as he egged on the crowd.

Embiid has been known to have a big personality with various ways of celebrating that get the fans pumped up. Prior to Tuesday’s game, Embiid’s outgoing personality had been somewhat quiet this season. When asked about it Embiid responded in a serious tone, “I haven’t done it enough all season. I have not been having fun like usually. just mainly because I am still trying to figure it out, make it work and all that stuff.”

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The Cameroonian-born center finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes. With 15.3 seconds remaining Embiid hit two clutch free throws to put the Sixers up by five. Tobias Harris chipped in with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists. The Sixers have now won three straight and are 13-0 at home.

Embiid’s numbers have taken a dip since last year when he averaged 27.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.9 blocks per game, but Philly is also working new players into their lineup after adding starters Josh Richardson and Al Horford in the offseason.

“It goes back with me being mature and one of the biggest parts of my game is having fun and by having fun means talking trash, but that part has kind of been cut so I just need to be myself and I guess do whatever I want. Because when I am having fun, I dominate. But this year, I don’t know, I could probably count on one hand how many times I have done it,” Embiid said.

After the game on Inside the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t shy about his opinion of Embiid. “We’re telling you, ‘You can be great. You ain’t playing hard enough.’ Twenty-two ain’t enough to get you to the next level. Do you want to be great or do you want to be good? If you want to be good, keep doing 22 points. You want to be great, give me 28, give me 30. You want to be great, watch Giannis — he wants to be great.”

Denver, on the other hand, is trying to figure out their best rotation. With last year’s draft pick, Michael Porter Jr. finally healthy the Nuggets are trying to figure out his role. Tuesday, their swingman Will Barton lead the team with 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. His contribution wasn’t enough to win, however, following the loss of starting point guard Jamal Murray to injury. Murray left the game with seven minutes left in the first quarter after colliding with Ben Simmons. Nikola Jokic had a nice all around game with 15 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds, but he needs to do more for this team consistently.

The Nuggets have now lost three straight and five of their last six.

The playoff-paced but injury-riddled Denver Nuggets added some relieving depth this week in the form of guard Nick Young.

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An extremely rare process has allowed the Nuggets to make the move on Young, who won the NBA Championship with the Golden State Warriors in 2017-2018. The team signed Young through the injury hardship relief exception, which is granted by the NBA only when the league determines a team is dealing with a hardship. It allows a team like the Nuggets to withhold over 15 players on the roster when it has at least four players who are sick or injured for longer than two weeks.  In the process, the team waived guard Brandon Goodwin to clear a spot for Young.

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The Nuggets could be without four of their five starters in Monday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Young can provide depth to the decimated Nuggets lineup that will be without all of the following injured players: Will Barton, (groin) Gary Harris, (hip) Paul Millsap, and possibly even point guard Jamal Murray (shin).

Young, 33, was the Washington Wizards’ first-round pick (No. 16) out of USC in 2007 and played five seasons with the team. He also played for the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers.