Game 7, Two MVP Finalists, and Some Questions

Plus, the Gor'ture Chamber opens for business

Well, we’re here again!

In what has been a wild first and second round of playoff action, we are now faced with the prospect of yet another Game 7, but this time, the stakes feel higher than just the game itself.

With the Nuggets taking on OKC in an absolute slugfest, there is suddenly more of a dichotomy between Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander than ever before, the latter of which has been favored to win the MVP award despite Jokic putting up what is likely the greatest individual offensive season in the history of modern basketball — but I don’t want to dip my toes too far into the discourse, at least not yet.

Today, I want to do something similar to what we’ve done in past weeks: Analyze the key factors that could drive Game 7, ranging from the high profile to the niche. I also want to briefly discuss what this means for the rest of the playoffs — at least, as much as we can discern given the randomness of this time of year — so we’ll get to that at the end.

First up, the Nuggets turn to a clutch player who’s turned up the defense this series…