• New Orleans Pelicans 135-141 Denver Nuggets (OT)

• Nuggets fans showed displeasure at half-time

Nikola Jokić scored eight of his 35 points in overtime and finished with 15 rebounds and 10 assists, and the short-handed Denver Nuggets rallied from 23 points down to beat the New Orleans Pelicans 141-135 on Saturday night.

Jokić had his 199th career triple-double in the regular season, second to Russell Westbrook, who retired with 209.

• Minnesota eliminate Denver in Game 6 of series

• Knicks smash NBA records in 51-point rout of Hawks

• 76ers surge in Embiid’s return to force Game 7 v Celtics

Three years after Nikola Jokić led the Denver Nuggets to the NBA championship, the peak looked awfully distant for the team from the Mile High City and the three-time MVP award winner.

Ousted in six games by the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first-round playoff series, the Nuggets trudged into the offseason with plenty of questions to answer about their ability to remain a true title contender in the stacked Western Conference. For the first time in four years, Denver failed to make it to May.

Will an Oklahoma City repeat end an NBA-record run of seven different champions in seven years? Our writers make their picks ahead of Saturday’s postseason tip-off

Wemby will no doubt be the answer to this question at some point in the (perhaps not-too-distant) future. But for now, I defer to those with at least some playoff experience. For my money, Jokić still reigns supreme as the best player alive, and for that reason, he’s my pick. CDL

As the millennial superstars near the end, an international generation reshapes the league. The question is whether an American can still carry the crown

That the NBA is reckoned in seasons is apt. To measure a legacy this way is as much existential as it is symbolic. Martin Heidegger argued that time is not something we pass through, but the condition of our being – less a pathway than a pressure. Heavy stuff, yes, but the NBA has always operated under similar weight.

The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul. In their wake comes something genuinely new. For the first time, the league’s next dominant generation is unmistakably international. The NBA’s gen Z elite now emerge from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Canada and France.