Jalen Brunson, the star player of the New Yorkers, dropped out in the first quarter with a foot injury. The visitors took full advantage of the All-Star’s absence to lead by 10 points before the break. But early in the third quarter, Brunson returned to the court at Madison Square Garden. With 24 of his total 29 points, he still led his team to victory after the interruption. Brunson had scored at least 40 points in each of the four previous playoff games, but that number was out of reach this time.
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Donte DiVincenzo and Ogugua Anunoby also had a large share in New York’s second win against Indiana in three days with 28 points. Tyrese Haliburton was the top scorer of the evening for visitors with 34 points.
The two teams will face each other again on Friday, for the first time in Minneapolis. The first to win four times will advance to the East finals against Boston or Cleveland.
Jokic enters an illustrious list
The 29-year-old strongman of the Denver Nuggets previously won the prestigious award in 2021 and 2022. Last year he finished second behind Joel Embiid of Philadelphia, but he was crowned champion with Denver. Jokic’s enthusiasm was oozing when he found out that he could receive the award again.
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Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9 assists this season. With Denver he finished the regular season at the top of the Western Conference alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the semi-finals of the play-offs, the title holder must make up for a 2-0 deficit against Minnesota.
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The Serbian was preferred with 79 votes over the two other finalists, the Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder, 15 votes) and the Slovenian Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks, 4 votes). An international panel of journalists and sports commentators were allowed to vote. For the third year in a row, no American was nominated for the top three. It has been since James Harden in 2018 that an American was named MVP.
Jokic is the ninth player to call himself MVP at least three times. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the record with six titles, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan have five, and Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James have four. Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were selected three times.