After the exciting days of the in-season tournament, the Denver Nuggets faced the Houston Rockets on the home court. The defending champions hosted an inconsistent Western Conference rival as the regular season competitiveness level rose with time. The clash piqued the interest of the fans mostly because the two teams’ star centers, Nikola Jokic and Alperen Sengun, went up against each other.
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Before the tip-off, the duo engaged in a brief conversation as Sengun seemed to have conveyed a joke to the 2x MVP. Jokic possibly could not hear it the first time due to the noise from the crowd as he moved closer to the Turkish player to comprehend his words. Alperen excitingly repeated his sentence before smiling at Nikola but the latter remained unamused following the interaction.
It caught the eyes of the viewers as the reaction coming from the 28-year-old was too uncharacteristic of him. Nicknamed ‘The Joker’, the Serbian is well known for producing fun moments on the court, even during the jump ball. Thus, the nonchalant shrug on this occasion in response to a fellow European star’s words seemed a bit unusual from the 2023 NBA champion.
It could well be spurred from the comparison between them in recent times as many backed Sengun to match Jokic’s status in the coming years. With impeccable passing skills alongside a polished talent for scoring in the paint, Alperen has developed rapidly since entering the league in 2021. So, the pressure of the matchup might have caught up to Nikola, which was again quite unusual for the 5x All-Star.
The connection between Nikola Jokic and Alperen Sengun
After a breakthrough season in the previous campaign, Sengun has garnered a lot of attention toward him. Following that, his numbers have only improved in this regular season, paving the way for potentially his first-ever All-Star appearance. Alongside his points per game, the Rockets center’s assists per game and field goal percentage have seen a significant hike.
This unthinkable development of the 6’11 star has received praise from analysts and even a few of his fellow NBA stars. Interestingly, that list includes the name of Jokic as the latter has been supportive throughout the process. As revealed by Alperen recently, “Every after the game, he’s coming to me like saying, ‘Good job Alpe. Great job. Keep it up’. Always giving me like good talk which is great for me”.
James Harden once congratulated him on the court during their game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “I’m so proud of you,” the former Rockets star told Sengun as it resulted in a memorable moment for the youngster.
Following the series of praises, the recent exchange with the 2023 Finals MVP could well be a forgettable scenario for the 23-year-old. Despite the unusuality of the situation, it displayed the reality of the league as Alperen shifted his focus to making his team win. After all, it’s all he was there for, to begin with.
