Cooper’s Hooper of the Night: This goes to the MVP of that night’s slate.

Nikola Jokic

My favorite thing to do when I’m watching a Nuggets game is seeing how many players my mom would think are better than Jokic just based on looks alone. While it’s not as bad as it used to be, he still is a bit pudgy and he kind of just shuffles around more so than runs. Yet he’s one of the best players that has ever played the game of basketball. The kings entered last night as one of the hottest teams in basketball, too bad that didn’t matter to Jokic. He dissected the Kings all night long, finishing with a final stat line of 35 points, 22 rebounds, 17 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. The only other player to put up 35-20-15 in a basketball game all time is Wilt Chamberlain, so that should tell you just how dominant this dude is. Oh yeah, he also did it while shooting 12-19, including 2-3 from beyond the arc and 9-10 from the charity stripe. He also only turned over the ball just 1 time, despite everything that he was asked to do last night. Somehow the stat line doesn’t even do his dominance justice, consider the following. He went up against Domantas Sabonis last night, someone who has been an All-Star himself and is also known to put up impressive stat lines. In fact, he did so last night, putting up 23 points, 19 rebounds and 8 assists. That’s excellent basketball right there, and on most nights would be enough of an effort to get you a win and be the Cooper’s Hooper of the Night. Yet against Jokic, that stat line looks like child’s play. For those that don’t know, there is a stat in the NBA called plus-minus. While it isn’t the end all be all stat, it does a pretty good job of capturing a player’s impact on winning. Basically, it factors in how many points a team leads or goes behind while a player is on the court compared to how many points a team leads or goes behind while said player’s backup is in the game. Despite the impressive stat line, Sabonis had a plus-minus of -18. For someone who nearly put up 20-20-10, it’s almost inconceivable that his team could be that much worse when he is on the court. It’s not that he played bad, but he went against Jokic, an all-time great who will go down as one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. Jokic was a +11 last night, which goes to show how much he dominated. The play of the night really captures just how effortless Jokic makes basketball look.

The “Holy Shit” Play of the Night: Best play of the night.

The 3rd quarter is about to end, with the Nuggets up 107-85 in a game that is all but over. De’Aaron Fox had just made a 3 with 1.7 seconds left in the quarter, which everyone assumed would be the last points of the quarter. Then Jokic decided he would use the next 1.7 seconds to audition for the Denver Broncos QB job, and the rest is history. Side note: The blue “Mile High City” Nuggets uniforms have to be a top 5 cleanest jersey in the league to me. That blue just pops man.

“Teach Your Kids to Play Like This Guy” Player of the Night: Player who may not have a ton of points, but impacts winning.

Dorian Finney-Smith

The Lakers acquired Dorian Finney-Smith on December 29th, and Lakers fans have been begging him to get more minutes ever since. It turned out he was dealing with an ankle issue, but they have slowly been ramping up his minutes as of late. If you didn’t watch last night, you would think he put up a stinker, as he shot 0-2, both from 3-point land, only had 4 rebounds and 0 assists. Offensively, this game was rough for Finney-Smith for sure. However, he was a monster on defense whenever he was in the game, doing everything in his ability to make it hard on Boston. If he was guarding one of the Jays on the ball? He put them in hell, with Brown and Tatum shooting a combined 12-31 from the field, including 5-15 from 3 and 4-10 from the free throw line. Now he didn’t guard them all night, but they had a particularly tough time when Finney-Smith was on them. When he wasn’t guarding them, he was helping to disrupt their passing lanes, getting 2 steals last night including a beautiful read to cut off the pass to Porzingis at the free throw line, looking more like an NFL cornerback than an NBA player. The Lakers trapped Jayson Tatum multiple times in the halfcourt, which means that if he can get the ball out quick enough, his team will have a 4-3 opportunity on offense. Most of the time, you see a player go to the free throw line to receive the pass from the trapped player, as that allows them to either attack for an easy layup or kick out for an open 3 should the defense move over to stop the player at the free throw line. Finney-Smith knows that the 4-3 is a losing proposition for his defense anyways, so he decides to play it aggressively. He sprints to Porzingis at the free throw line and intercepts the Tatum pass, giving his team an opportunity to score following his defensive playmaking. Finney-Smith gets my “Teach Your Kids to Play Like This Guy” Player of the Night because in a game where he had zero points, he still found a way to make his impact be felt on the other side of the ball, leading to a +20 for him, the 2nd highest on the team.

Numbers Sometimes Lie Player of the Night (could be good or bad): Player who’s stat line least matches tier actual impact.

Davion Mitchell

Davion Mitchell had a game much like Finney-Smith did: 1-3 from the field for 2 points, not exactly what I would call lighting up the scoreboard. He did still manage to be one of the Raptors most important players in this game though, a narrow 122-119 win over the Atlanta Hawks. Mitchell helped organize the Raptors offense, creating 7 assists to just 2 turnovers in this one. He also had the responsibility of shutting down Trae Young last night, a daunting task for most players. Mitchell is unique in that he is around the same size as the small but shifty Young, meaning that Young isn’t able to blow by Mitchell the way he does with most defenders. This was evident all night long, as he was making Young have to work very hard to get open. They started using more screen and roll action as the game went on, because Trae was simply not able to create 1-on-1 separation last night. Young ended up shooting 7-19 from the field, including just 2-8 from beyond the arc. He still did a good job of getting others involved, but struggled to create open looks for himself all night long. Davion Mitchell finished with a game high +17 despite the lack of scoring, making him my Numbers Sometimes Lie Player of the Night.

Clutch Player of the Night: Player who performed their best in the biggest moments.

Spencer Dinwiddie

The Mavericks beat the Thunder for the 2nd time this month last night, despite not having Luka Doncic for both games. Doncic has missed lots of time this season, which isn’t ideal when you are a team coming off a finals loss, desperate to go back and prove everyone wrong. Factor in that they also just lost starting center Dereck Lively to a foot fracture, and it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine the Mavericks struggling at the moment. Yet time and time again, somebody on the team keeps stepping up, and last night it was Spencer Dinwiddie. You’re never going to go out and replace Luka’s production, so you just ask players to go out and play their best. Boy did Dinwiddie do so last night, finishing with 28 points on 11-14 shooting, including 3-6 from 3. His hot shooting continued all the way throughout the game, as he shot 4-5 in the 4th quarter as well. Just when it felt like the Thunder were getting ready to go on a run that would blow this game open, Dinwiddie seemed to hit a shot that would kill the momentum. The Thunder are the 1 seed out West currently, so it was going to take a superhero effort from Dallas to win this game. Good thing Dinwiddie brought his cape to this one.

The Well-Oiled Machine Team of the Night: Team that played the best from start to finish.

Los Angeles Lakers

I’m calling iso here, time for me to get my Lakers glaze going. I’m sorry, but when you dominate your biggest rival at home the way the Lakers did, you would have to be a blind man not to acknowledge it. This game felt over pretty early on, with the Lakers playing some of their best basketball on both ends to date. On defense, they clearly told themselves that they were fine with giving up whatever to Porzingis, but they clearly didn’t want the Jays to get going. They did an outstanding job of denying dribble drives from these 2, as they shot 5 of their 8 shots combined in the 1st quarter from 3-point land. They trapped Tatum and Brown on the perimeter pretty often, especially if Porzingis was involved in a pick and roll with them. If the Celtics did a good job getting out of the double, Anthony Davis was there to clean up, getting 2 of his 3 blocks in the first. The Celtics shot just 37.5% as a team in the first, a defensive effort that continued throughout the night, as Boston ended up scoring just 96 points. On offense, the Lakers big 3 was doing their thing, as Reaves, Davis, and James each scored 20 last night on pretty efficient shooting. Dalton Knecht even found his shooting groove again, shooting 5-7 from the field and 3-4 on 3-pointers. The Lakers had a stretch in the 3rd where the offense stalled for a bit, but other than that they were locked in all night, getting open looks on most possessions. You could tell early in this one that it was going to be a blowout, and nothing feels better during the regular season than a blowout win over Boston.

The Tom Petty “Won’t Back Down” Team of the Night: Team that fought hard in 2nd half to make game close or straight up win.

Sacramento Kings

Most nights, the effort the Kings played with in the 4th quarter would be enough to win them games. Unfortunately for them, most nights you don’t play Nikola Jokic, but last night they did. Still, I have to acknowledge the effort from the Kings late in this one to make it competitive. They outscored the Nuggets 38-22 in the 4th quarter, at one point making it a 5-point game with 48 seconds left to play. While they were never going to overcome such a historic night from Jokic, they sure as hell tried to. The Kings shot 50% in the 4th, including 8-16 from deep! They made more 3s in the 4th than the first 3 quarters combined. On defense, a Sacramento team that usually struggles to get stops locked in, limiting Denver to 6-21 shooting and just 1-7 from beyond the arc. While it wasn’t enough to win the game, it was impressive watching them start this run on the defensive side of the ball. They were down 25 entering the 4th quarter, coming off that Jokic quarterback-style buzzer beater that just ended the 3rd. Most teams would bow out for the night at this point, so credit to the Kings for staying in this one and fighting until the final buzzer. While the game may not have ended the way Kings fans wanted it to, they should feel really good about the way Doug Christie has had this team looking ever since he took over the head coaching job from Mike Brown. The Kings are going to keep winning games throughout the 2nd half of the season, last night they just happened to run into an all-time performance from one of the league’s all-time players.

The “There’s Always Next Game” Team of the Night: Team that came out with no juice.

Boston Celtics

Hah, you think glazing the Lakers was enough? You think I would be happy just by praising my favorite team for coming out and playing our best game of the year but nah, I want more. I NEED MORE. When it comes to the Celtics, Kendrick Lamar summed up my feelings best with the line, “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.” I became a Lakers fan during the 08 finals, when I saw them lose to the Celtics. Quite literally, my NBA fandom was born out of Celtics hatred. So to see them come out so flat against us felt so good, like when you thought you drank all your sodas, but you still have 1 can left. The Celtics played way too passive from the moment the game tipped off, something that has been a problem for them lately. They are now 11-10 in their last 21 games, a large sample size that has to make you a little concerned if you’re a Boston fan. They have always been a team that shoots a lot of 3s, but it feels like they are shooting even more this year, with the attempts coming even earlier in the shot clock. The Celtics are at their best when they can get Tatum and Brown attacking downhill, as they either get easy layups or fouls, or they pass out to open shooters on the perimeter. Those are the 3-point opportunities I would want if I were Boston, not sidestep 3s off a pick and roll with 12 seconds left on the shot clock. We saw that type of shot multiple times last night from the Jays, instead of them just being aggressive and forcing their way to the basket. I will give the Lakers credit in that they didn’t have Davis on Porzingis for lots of possessions last night, with him guarding either White or Holiday on a lot of possessions so he doesn’t get punished as bad for helping. Still, it just seemed like Boston was accepting that they couldn’t get into the paint, often times not even attempting to get to the rim.  I’ll say this with the Celtics: are they probably just a defending champ going through the dog days of the NBA season? Yes. Will they likely be able to flip the switch come March to get ready for the playoffs? Probably. But is the pathway out East tougher this year than it was last year? In my opinion it totally is, as multiple teams are either healthier or just flat out better than they were this time last year. So while I don’t think they need to panic over at TD Garden, they do want to show some signs of life before the playoffs start. They still are the betting favorites to come out of the East, but that won’t last long if they continue to play this lackadaisical.  I personally have the Cavs over them, you have to wonder when the sportsbooks will too.