Thunder vs. Nuggets. Nikola Jokić vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Game 7! Sunday’s high-stakes showdown (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) will conclude a dramatic second round of the NBA playoffs. Who will move on to the Western Conference finals to face the Timberwolves? Let’s break it down.
What’s got you most excited about Game 7?
Ben Rohrbach: Nikola Jokić vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s two leading MVP candidates each of the past two seasons, waging war in a Game 7. What’s not to like? One is a bruiser, the other a surgeon. It is a clash of styles between basketball’s best big man and its best guard. And both of them rarely disappoint.
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Tom Haberstroh: The desperation. At stake: the Thunder could be the winningest team to miss the conference finals; the Nuggets don’t want to be a second-round out — again — especially after witnessing a triple-double season from Nikola Jokić. On top of that, could we get an MVP ceremony before the game, which would tighten the screws even more? As the NCAA tournament shows us every year, there’s nothing better than hoops with do-or-die stakes.
Dan Titus: The one-day break, after a nightly hoops marathon since April 18, is torture. But it’ll be worth the wait because we get two MVP finalists going toe-to-toe for the lone Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Will Denver’s unshakable resilience prevail? Or, is the young Thunder squad ready to seize the moment? It’s the kind of high-stakes drama that makes the NBA playoffs must-see TV.
Morten Stig Jensen: It’s the MVP angle for me. Simplistic, maybe, but I’m a sucker for playoff series where the two leading candidates go head-to-head. And now we get a seventh game between Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? Give me all of the drama, and all of the narratives afterward.
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Jason Owens: What’s not to be excited about? The NBA’s best team seeks its postseason breakthrough against the former champions. The presumed MVP vs. the best player in the world. The winner will emerge as the favorite in the eyes of many to win the NBA championship. This is the stuff of NBA playoff lore.
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