Adam Silver can read a room. Standing in the middle of Denver’s Ball Arena court minutes before tip-off for Game 5 of a 2-2 series between the Nuggets and Timberwolves, Silver was presenting Nikola Jokic with his third MVP award. Knowing his subject would rather be doing just about anything else than accepting a trophy before a big game, Silver kept it short.

“Nikola, three MVPs and a championship in four years. What a run. But we got a game to play tonight. So you are the NBA’s Kia MVP. Congratulations.”

Then Jokic held the trophy with both hands, half-smiled, stood there just long enough to make sure the obligatory pictures were taken and that he wouldn’t be asked to do this again anytime soon, and put the trophy back down. Only his teammates rushing the court to hug and jump around him made him crack a smile. Then it was on to business.

To that point in the series, Jokic wasn’t playing like the MVP. Don’t get me wrong, he was playing well, but not markedly better than the ascending Anthony Edwards who had led the Timberwolves to two wins on this same court to start the series. The Nuggets rallied to win two in Minnesota but to take a 3-2 lead in the series on Tuesday night, the Nuggets needed something special.

As Silver noted, it’s been quite a run. Three MVPs for Jokic and a championship last year. But the Nuggets had never been tested quite like this. 

The Timberwolves were literally built to beat them, and they embarrassed Denver in two games to start the series. Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns engulfed everything near the rim. Jaden McDaniels tortured Jamal Murray and other ball-handlers near halfcourt. Edwards poured in shots and laid on the trash talk. It looked so overwhelming that some wondered if the Nuggets would get swept. They can hardly be blamed. The Nuggets looked broken, or worse – they looked solved.

All the great teams and great players have had moments like this during their run. Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry had to overcome series deficits that threatened their burgeoning legacies. A few examples:

1993 Eastern Conference Finals: The two-time champion Bulls went down 0-2 to the No. 1 seed New York Knicks. Jordan played poorly in the first two games and the Bulls were losing their poise and complaining about the officiating. “Not only did the Bulls lose the game, they lost their poise,” read the New York Times. The Bulls went on to win the next four. “After losing Games 1 and 2, the Bulls adjusted, regrouped and rose to the occasion. And when they raised their level of play, the Knicks simply could not match it,” read the New York Times when the series was over.

2000 Western Conference Finals: The top-seeded Lakers, led by 27-year-old Shaquille O’Neal and 21-year-old Kobe Bryant, took a 3-1 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers, but Rasheed Wallace, Steve Smith and Scottie Pippen rattled off two straight wins to force a Game 7. The Lakers trailed by 15, but Shaq and Kobe combined for 18 points and powered a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter to win the game. They went on to beat the Indiana Pacers in the Finals.

2012 Eastern Conference Finals: Down 3-2 in Boston, the Miami Heat’s Big Three experiment was on the ropes. LeBron faced questions about his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami and whether he could ever win a championship. His legacy was also on the line. You know what happened next… the “look,” 45 points on 73% shooting, and a dismantling of the Celtics to force a Game 7. LeBron and the Heat went on to beat the Thunder in the NBA Finals, the first of their back-to-back championships.

2016 Western Conference Finals: The reigning champion, 73-win Warriors were down 3-1 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but won the next three to advance to the NBA Finals. Klay Thompson’s 19 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6 is the highlight to one of the great series comebacks. The Warriors went on to blow their own 3-1 lead in the Finals, but they also ended those Thunder as we knew them and attracted Kevin Durant to sign with them that summer. They went on to win two straight championships.

**

If Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets can defeat the Timberwolves, the 2024 Western Conference semifinals may go down as a similarly important series, and Jokic’s Game 5 masterclass will be remembered as his Game 6. His “look” wasn’t one of fiery intensity like LeBron’s, but of focus. 

Gone were the mouth-agape, upward palm pleas to the officials. There was no hesitation. Jokic put on his scrubs, got out his scalpel and put on a clinic. The Timberwolves spent the first four games of the series trying to force Jokic into being a scorer and he obliged. Jokic poured in 40 points on 68% shooting, 13 assists and seven rebounds. He also had zero turnovers. He was a machine mixed with a battering ram. 

Four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert? Jokic went through his chest. He went 8 for 9 when guarded by Gobert, using a series of rips and push-throughs to power his way past the 7-footer. Finally, when Gobert had him squared up on the perimeter at the end of the shot clock, the Joker lofted a 3-pointer for his last three points of the game. There were no answers.

Jokic has undeniably held the belt as the NBA’s best player since winning last year’s Finals, and it’s a testament to his greatness that he hasn’t been seriously threatened for nearly 12 calendar months. He was last week when the Nuggets went down 0-2. Like LeBron, Jordan and Steph, teams were constructed to beat him and nearly did.

There is still one more win for the Nuggets to grab in this series, but if Jokic finishes this off, he will have passed this stress test and become a better player because of it. 

Then it’ll be on the rest of the league to regroup for another shot to take him down.