BREAKING: Nikola Jokic Leaves Fans Talking With Game 3 Stats vs. Thunder

Nikola Jokic after Game 3 vs. the Thunder.

© Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The Denver Nuggets flashed their championship grit in Game 3 versus the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday and managed to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

They trailed by five at halftime, but they fought the Thunder step by step and forced overtime, where they dominated and won by a final score of 113-104.

Denver had to endure a horrible performance by superstar center Nikola Jokic, who shot 8-of-25 from the field and scored a modest 20 points. He set new playoff career worst in true shooting percentage, turnovers and missed threes, and yet his team was still able to emerge victorious.

Some fans on X, however, knew that Jokic still found ways to contribute to Denver’s victory.

“If you just look at stats you’ll think he had a horrible game, but he didn’t,” one fan wrote.

“people in comments exposing themselves as stat geeks”

“REAL MVP player, he actually helps his team win, unlike ball hogging Shai who ruins everything,” wrote another fan.

“Still better stat line than SGA tonight, 20 / 17 / 6 vs 18 / 13 / 8,” a third fan wrote.

“But he was still 20-17-6 and outscored everyone on the Thunder except Williams and had more rebounds than everyone else on the court. Don’t hate too hard,” another fan wrote.

Other fans knew that this was also a team effort from Denver.

“They played excellent defense on shai,” one fan wrote.

“Him supposedly having ‘no help’ is the biggest lie in basketball discourse,” another fan wrote.

Great players such as Jokic, who is a three-time MVP, routinely find ways to help their teams win even when they’re struggling to hit shots. In Friday’s game, he grabbed 17 rebounds, dished off six assists and added two steals and two blocks.

Denver had three players score over 20 points, including noted playoff riser Jamal Murray, who had 27 points, as well as eight assists.

The team’s overall defense was impressive. It held the Thunder, one of the NBA’s most prolific offensive teams this season, to just 38.5% from the field and 25.7% from 3-point range. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s scoring champion and the front-runner for the regular-season MVP award, to 18 points on 7-of-22 shooting.

The Nuggets will have a chance to put a stranglehold on this series in Game 4 on Sunday.