The NBA Playoffs bracket is finally set. After six enjoyable Play-In Games, we have the four teams that have emerged and taken playoff seedings. The last ones to arrive to the party were the Minnesota Timberwolves. Rudy Gobert had a big double-double in his return from suspension, as the Wolves beat the Thunder 120-95.
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The Timberwolves looked like a whole different squad last night than the ones who had taken on the Lakers. Anthony Edwards was knocking down his shots, KAT didn’t get into foul trouble, and well, Gobert made his impact felt.
Clinching the 8th seed, the Wolves will now be heading to Denver to take on the Nuggets on Sunday for the first-round matchup. A Gobert-Nikola Jokic matchup in the books again? This prompted a post by a page on Instagram, which was shared by Shaquille O’Neal on his stories.
Shaquille O’Neal shares hilarious Rudy Gobert and Nikola Jokic interaction
As soon as a Rudy Gobert and Nikola Jokic matchup was set in stone, basketball pages got working overtime to find past incidents. Bleacher Report came up with a gem of an incident that happened during a regular season matchup in 2021.
It was so funny that Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t help but share the same on his Instagram story.
Shaquille O’Neal shares iconic 2021 moment between Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/V45dACZtuk
— What are NBA Celebs Upto? (@NBACelebsUpdate) April 15, 2023
In 2021, during a regular season matchup between the Nuggets and the Jazz, Nikola Jokic had 47 points en route a 127-118 win. Jamal Murray remembered an incident from the game and shared,
“Joker’s got 47 right at this point, right against Gobert. He catches the ball on the block and they’re trying to send like half help, trust in the double team, right. And Gobert goes, ‘No I got him, I got him.’ Jokic has the ball and he goes, ‘Brother I have 47.’ I was like ‘Oh, you’re a savage brother.'”
Apart from being a genius on the court, it turns out Jokic has rather great comic sense as well!
Can Jokic win his 3rd MVP in a row?
Nikola Jokic is a 2x NBA MVP, with his sights set on becoming the 4th ever player to win 3 MVPs in a row. Yesterday, they announced the finalists for the coveted award, and there were no surprises there.
The 2022-23 #KiaMVP finalists:
⭐️ Joel Embiid
⭐️ Giannis Antetokounmpo
⭐️ Nikola Jokic pic.twitter.com/BFPoPPoPgl— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 14, 2023
Many are favoring Joel Embiid as the top candidate this year. However, the MVP Ladder on NBA.com has Jokic back in the top spot for its final edition of the season. I guess we’ll have to just wait and see what the voting goes like.