Nikola Jokic Talks NBA MVP Race vs. SGA: 'I'm Playing the Best Basketball of My Life'

The NBA MVP race was fully under the spotlight as Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets split back-to-back games with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday and Monday, and the former opened up about his chances for the award.

"I will say that I think I'm playing the best basketball of my life, so if that's enough, that's enough," Jokić said after Monday's win, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "If not, the guy [Gilgeous-Alexander] deserves it. He's really amazing."

For Jokić to say he is playing his best basketball is particularly notable because he is already one of the top players in league history at 30 years old.

His resume includes three MVPs, a championship, an NBA Finals MVP, six All-NBA selections and seven All-Star Game nods. He stuffs the stat sheet seemingly every single night and ranks in the top three in the league in points (28.9), assists (10.5), rebounds (13.0) and steals (1.8) per game this season.

Gilgeous-Alexander has also been excellent this season.

His Thunder sit atop the Western Conference standings at 53-12 and are 11 games ahead of the second-seeded Nuggets. While Denver is the No. 2 seed, the 10th-seeded Dallas Mavericks are closer to Jokić and Co. than the Nuggets are to Oklahoma City.

SGA is averaging a league-best 32.7 points, 6.2 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 52.5 percent from the floor and 37.3 percent from deep this season. He also will have the advantage of voter fatigue if that does become an issue, as Jokić has three MVPs to the guard's zero.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was concerned about that becoming a reality.

"As we wind down this season, this whole MVP thing is really going to pick up," Malone said. "You understand that; that's a part of it. Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he's deserving of that.

"My thing is this: If you didn't know that Nikola won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper and you had no idea that the guy who was averaging a triple-double, the guy who's top three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one's ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don't think so, I think you guys are all full of s---."

It will surely be a hotly contested debate for the rest of the season, and it was fitting they split their back-to-back games against each other so one didn't move ahead from a perception standpoint.

But they would likely both rather have a championship, which means a potential Western Conference Finals showdown would be more important.