The Denver Nuggets are blessed to have a player like Nikola Jokic. The Serbian has been a gift that keeps on giving this season for Denver, which is bound for the playoffs again. Despite the crazy exploits this season of players like Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, the fantastic play of Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid, and even the nightly statistical assaults of Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook, it's still Jokic who is on top of most MVP rankings you'd find out there.
Those players are not the only ones who are giving Jokic a challenge this season. There are also the refs, who appear to have the predilection of blowing their whistles on the Nuggets' center, especially late in the game. What's more disconcerting is the fact that many of those calls end up being incorrect ones upon review.
Via Owen Phillips:
“According to the NBA’s Last Two Minute Reports, Jokic has been on the wrong end of a bad call a league-leading 14 times this season. Twice as many as the second-most player.”
Next to Jokic is Rudy Gobert, who's got seven incorrect calls that have “disadvantaged” a player.
But before thinking that officials are targeting Jokic (there's really no concrete reason to believe that) it should also be noted that it's possible that he's getting that many bad calls because the Nuggets have been involved in lots of closely contested games.
“Remember, these numbers come from the NBA’s Last Two Minute Reports, which are only published for games where the score is within three points in the final two minutes. Refs aren’t perfect and incorrect calls are bound to be made so any player who has the ball in their hands at the end of close games will likely be the recipient of the occasional bad call.”
In any case, Nikola Jokic is having quite a season, and not even those bad calls could stop the Joker from being a serious MVP candidate.
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