On Wednesday night, the Denver Nuggets took a commanding 2-1 lead over the Miami Heat in this year’s NBA Finals. Already, we NBA fans have been treated to historical performances, particularly by Nikola Jokic. With that said, let’s quickly look at who is leading the race for Finals MVP among the top contributors for these teams.
1. Nikola Jokic (DEN): 33.3 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 9.3 APG, 1.0 BPG, 68.2 TS% (59.0/44.4/85.7 shooting splits)
Jokic has been nothing short of incredible, as he has simply been historic in these NBA Finals. There’s no arguing his spot at #1 on this list because of how much better he has been. In addition to his obviously spectacular offense, he has been quite good defensively this series, affecting many Heat shots at the rim and causing misses. Not only did he have the only 30/20/10 take in Finals history in Game 3, he had a 41 point explosion in Game 2 and 27/10/14 in Game 1.
2. Jamal Murray (DEN): 26.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 10.0 APG, 61.1 TS% (50.8/30.1/90.0 splits)
Second in command to Jokic is Murray, who has found his renaissance in this postseason, becoming a true star once again for the Nuggets. Having over 25 points in two of the three games is impressive, yes, but the most impressive part of Murray in these Finals is his playmaking. He has had 10 assists in each of the three games, as he strings out defenses and seems to always be finding the open man against the Heat’s aggressive help. He is certainly the Robin to Jokic’s Batman, but that isn’t to say that Murray isn’t one of the premier offensive talents in this league.
3. Bam Adebayo (MIA): 23.0 PPG, 13.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.0 BPG, 51.8 TS% (46.7/0.0/86.7 splits)
Adebayo has been the Heat’s best player in this series. He has scored over 20 points in all three games, but his poor efficiency in Game 3 (7-21 from the field) drags down his TS% to 51.8%. In addition to providing offensive production through his scoring, he has been a quality defender. Of course, guarding Jokic is difficult, but he has still been the best for the task. Every time a non-Adebayo defender is on Jokic, the ball is immediately in Jokic’s hands, or something is created due to Jokic’s gravity. They need Adebayo if they want to win this series.
4. Jimmy Butler (MIA): 20.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 6.7 APG, 50.1 TS% (42.1/36.4/83.3 splits)
Butler really hasn’t been great this series. It appears that his ankle injury continues to bother him. He has been inefficient offensively with an inability to consistently get to his spots and knock shots down. Also, his defense hasn’t consistently been great. For example, Murray routinely got by Butler in Game 3, as he failed to effectively navigate ball screens, letting the Murray and Jokic two-man game destroy the Heat (like Game 1). If Butler wants to win the NBA Finals, he needs to crank his level up because his current play isn’t quite cutting it.
5. T-5. Gabe Vincent (MIA): 16.3 PPG, 2.7 APG, 63.4 TS% (47.2/45.5/83.3 splits) / Aaron Gordon (DEN): 13.0 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, 63.9 TS% (63.0/66.7/37.5 splits)
There’s a tie for the fifth and final spot because it’s close. Vincent needs his credit for being huge in Miami’s lone win in Game 2, putting up a team-high 23 points. The issue has been his defense, as Denver’s size advantage has been used to pick on the smaller Vincent. For Gordon, his Nuggets are up 2-1, so he needs a bump in the FMVP ladder. He has been Denver’s best defender this series, and he has been a force on the interior offensively, using his size to take advantage of smaller defenders.
Charlie Spungin , NBA Analyst