Thunder-Nuggets Set to Feature Classic Battle of MVP vs. Runner-Up

The second round is set to feature one of the NBA’s most storied rivalries.

Although the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets are preparing for their first playoff matchup in 14 years, the meeting will be the latest chapter of one of the most interesting NBA storylines.

Throughout the league’s history, MVP winners have made plenty of deep playoff runs. So too have the stars who came up just short of winning the award, and each time the top two in MVP voting match up, there seems to be a classic battle.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s days without an MVP are numbered, as he will almost certainly be announced as the 2024-25 winner soon. Meanwhile, Nikola Jokic is likely to finish runner-up for the second time in three years, narrowly missing out on his fourth win.

The battle of the superstars is already going to be an exciting duel without the added storyline, but the MVP narrative gives a bit more fuel to the fire. While Gilgeous-Alexander prevented Jokic from securing another MVP, it was the Nuggets star’s best statistical season of his career.

Leading into a series between the two, the battle of team success vs. individual will be on full display. As for the series being a battle of the top two in MVP voting, there is plenty of history that comes with that specific battle.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic will battle for the first time in the postseason, but it will mark the 24th time the MVP and runner-up will match up in a playoff series. Of the 23 previous matchups, only four have come prior to the conference finals, including the most recent.

In 2017, Russell Westbrook and James Harden battled in the only first-round series between an MVP and runner-up. Harden’s Rockets got the best of Westbrook’s Thunder in a 4-1 series.

Although Harden managed to win that series as the runner-up, the MVP is 15-8 against runners-up in playoff meetings. That series is also a massive outlier because it is one of only two such series where the winner didn’t win the championship, joining 1969’s battle between Wes Unseld and Willis Reed.

Considering 12 of the 23 previous matchups occurred in the Finals, it is no surprise that the winner of the series has almost always been a champion. However, with nine of the 11 non-Finals series also resulting in the winner being crowned champion, this series can represent knocking out the best competition remaining or might simply give enough of a boost to the winning team to carry it through the rest of the playoffs.

There is no guarantee that playing in or winning this series means much other than a fun storyline. But considering how history has gone, a win against Jokic and the Nuggets could soon mean a ring for Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder.