A year after finishing as the runner-up for NBA MVP, Oklahoma City Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has officially reached the pinnacle.

As the NBA prepares to announce its 2025 MVP, check out the stats of the top two contenders from league's Western Conference.

For the second straight season, Nikola Jokić's eternally resilient Denver Nuggets took a Western Conference heavyweight to seven games in the second round. And for the second straight season, Jokić's Nuggets ultimately fell short for the same reason.

Game 1 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals.They can also take a little extra joy in a comment former Nuggets head coach Michael Malone made on the broadcast about the NBA MVP race.

They weren't that thin for the Denver Nuggets. They were as thick as Nikola Jokić. The best player in the world had the 68-win Thunder on the ropes multiple times. Jokić outplayed presumptive MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a second-round series that went seven games but ended in an OKC blowout.

"Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he's deserving of that," Malone told reporters. "My thing is this: If you didn't know that Nik