Nuggets: Nikola Jokic MVP hype train goes off rails vs. Rockets

The mean streets of Twitter were not kind to Nuggets star Nikola Jokic after his clunker against the Rockets.

Nikola Jokic picked a terrible time to put up a clunker. To be fair, this was his first game back for the Denver Nuggets following a three-game injury layoff, but this still isn't enough for fans to overlook the fact that he played terribly in a shocking loss to a 20-60 Houston Rockets side in a 124-103 blowout. To make matters worse for Jokic and his bid to win his third straight MVP title, Philadelphia 76er superstar Joel Embiid, his primary rival for this year's Most Valuable Player crown, just dropped a 50-piece all over the Boston Celtics in a marquee matchup in the Eastern Conference.

Unsurprisingly, Jokic's forgettable evening drew the ire of more than a few fans on the mean streets of Twitter. A lot of folks believe that the events from Tuesday night only solidifies Embiid's claim for the MVP title:

Embiid dropped 52 on the Celtics and Jokic just took an L to the Rockets pic.twitter.com/5HoyJFV4dY

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) April 5, 2023

Jokic conveniently came back from injury to face a 19-60 Houston Rockets team just to lose by 21

LMAOOOOOOOO

— 🥤 (@34for2) April 5, 2023

Nikola Jokic scored 14 points in a 21-point loss to the 19-60 Rockets on the same night Joel Embiid had 52 in a win over the Celtics.

There are levels to this. pic.twitter.com/kSDK7LNAWt

— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) April 5, 2023

Mind you jokic did this against the ROCKETS and embiid did this against the Celtics 😭

— ☀️ (@wstgoat7) April 5, 2023

Embiid's got a 50-piece against the Celtics while Jokic is working toward double-digit TOs in a loss to the worst team in the NBA. Might be the sliding-door moment in the closest MVP race in memory.

— Justin Verrier (@JustinVerrier) April 5, 2023

Alperen Şengün outplayed his idol Nikola Jokić today:

Şengün: 20/10/7/3/1 62 TS%

Jokić: 14/10/4/2/3 52 TS% pic.twitter.com/qCnt35N1dW

— Bradeaux (@BradeauxNBA) April 5, 2023

joel embiid 50 ball while jokic gets outplayed by sengun in a loss to the worst team in the nba pic.twitter.com/NVJCyYfYcJ

— ziyan (@ziyanm_) April 5, 2023

There's definitely much more where that came from, but you get the gist. Simply put, Nikola Jokic just took a massive hit in his bid for another MVP trophy in his cabinet. This is after he finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and a whopping eight turnovers in a totally unexpected loss against literally the worst team in the West.

Joel Embiid, on the other hand, may have just gotten one hand on the MVP trophy after tonight's epic performance. The Sixers superstar dropped a monster 52-point, 13-rebound double-double all over Jayson Tatum and the Celtics, to go along with six assists and two blocks. More importantly, Philly emerged with a hard-fought 103-101 victory against one of the best teams in the NBA today.

As one of the above tweets said, there are indeed levels to this.