The great Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets will most likely win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award on Wednesday night. He had better start acting like it on Friday.

His Nuggets have lost their first two games at home and are now trailing the Minnesota Timberwolves, 2-0. By far the best player in this series, if not any playoff series thus far, has appeared to be Anthony Edwards. Jokic, the renowned, cool, huge man who never worries about anything, has appeared more defeated than in control during this entire ordeal.

The Jokic-isn’t-as-good-as-they-say nonsense has already surfaced once more. He really is that talented. He truly is one of the all-time greats in the making. After an incredible season, he deserves to win a third MVP award on Wednesday night—I voted for him. 

And he will undoubtedly fall into that peculiar trap that occasionally appears at this time of year, when the NBA calendar presents the MVP award just when its winner is having difficulty living up to such high expectations during the playoffs.

Joel Embiid won the championship last season. and vanished right away at the conclusion of the playoffs’ second round after his Sixers gave up a 3-2 series lead to the Boston Celtics. Jokic was swept out of the second round of those postseasons and booted in the first one the following year, despite winning back-to-back MVP awards.

Similar to James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and other players, these winners received their awards around the time that their seasons were coming to an end, marring their brilliance due to the spotlight of elimination from the playoffs.

It’s just the way it is; the more you’re praised, the more likely it is that you’ll receive criticism. Alright. Alright, it makes sense. It’s possible that most of us, including the Nuggets themselves, had an overly optimistic and simplistic view of the Western Conference and expected the team to walk all the way to the NBA Finals.

But to lose this badly, outmuscled, outplayed, and physically dominated against the Timberwolves, a traditionally incompetent team, and a suddenly popular player in Edwards?

Denver, at least try to fight back.

in particular, Joker, the recently crowned MVP.

Jokic’s success hasn’t come at the expense of his team, unlike when LeBron James was eliminated from the 2015 NBA Finals. In this series, Jokic hasn’t shown off his genuine abilities just when his team needed a leader to demonstrate his worth.

Tim Connelly, the team president, built the Minnesota Timberwolves primarily to defeat the Denver Nuggets, a team he had overseen during his tenure as head of basketball operations. 

That strategy has proven effective. Jokic and his teammates have been completely bewildered by the length of Rudy Gobert, who missed Game 2, Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid, and the other players on the T-Wolves’ top-ranked defense.

Jokic did have 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists in the first game. Though he shot only 11 of 25 and committed seven turnovers, he had to work hard to get there. The Nuggets were defeated, and the much anticipated Joker-steps-up-and-sets-things-right effort in Game 2 did not transpire. His team lost by a staggering 26 points, and he only finished 5 for 13 for 16 points.

Even if he may be injured, Jamal Murray, his co-star, hasn’t been doing well. In these two games, he is 9 of 32, with a horrendous 3-of-18 performance in Game 2. It was clear from practically every play of Game 2 that Minnesota’s defense completely overpowered the reigning champions, even if the Nuggets’ final total of 80 points was a season low.

It is obvious that the 2-0 series disadvantage is not ideal. That Game 2 thrashing is unsettling. The fact that Edwards made his playoff debut with such assured brilliance just serves to increase the difficulty of the assignment. Denver must attempt to climb out of a significant hole given that they have lost their first two home games in this series.

The most concerning indication of Denver’s susceptibility, though, was its frantic, childish, amateurish response to those setbacks. In the opening quarter of Game 2, Michael Malone lost control of the team, indicating that he was intimidated by the opponent very early on.

Murray also had many instances on Monday that were blatantly panicked. He gestured with his finger in the same way that Gobert was fined $100,000 earlier in the season. Murray later threw a heat pack onto the ground while playing.

Malone didn’t receive a technical or worse, ejection. Murray was also not suspended. Instead, the NBA said on Tuesday that he would also be subject to a $100,000 fine—a pitiful amount in comparison to the punishment that made sense.

However, the Nuggets’ message was crystal clear: We’re shook.

The T-Wolves seem to have even Jokic under control. When asked how he would handle Minnesota’s size following Game 1, he said having a clone of himself would be beneficial. Not very good.

Jokic was then questioned about how the Nuggets would react in Game 3 following the humiliation in Game 2. Jokic told reporters, “I don’t know,” demonstrating a lack of confidence. “We will see.”

Here’s an answer, a strategy, and a solution: Let the star perform as a star. Let’s investigate that.

Jokic remains one of the world’s best players, if not the best. Even if the Nuggets lose this series, that won’t alter. Narratives, however, are peculiar, and Jokic’s careless surrender in the second round of the playoffs will unleash a torrent of naysayers, skeptics, and dormant “I told you so” supporters.

However, the idea stays the same. The guy is going to earn his third MVP, but the honor will feel more tarnished and dubious than it ought to if he doesn’t start performing like one.