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Andrew Wiggins sent Nikola Jokic into the All-Star break with this poster dunk

Andrew Wiggins scored 40 for the second consecutive game. (AP)
Andrew Wiggins scored 40 for the second consecutive game. (AP)

Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic has been one of the top young stars of the 2016-17 season, building on a very good rookie season to become a top Most Improved Player candidate and a trendy pick to replace any injured players in Sunday’s All-Star Game. Jokic has been particularly strong in recent weeks — he has two triple-doubles in February, including one in the Nuggets’ record-setting win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday. Jokic will participate in both the Rising Stars Challenge and Skills Challenge in New Orleans this weekend, and it’s a safe bet that various media members will talk up the likelihood that he participates in the main event at All-Star Weekend in 2018.

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Andrew Wiggins must have been very happy to send Jokic off on that journey when he and the Minnesota Timberwolves visited the Nuggets on Wednesday night. With a little more than 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, Wiggins wished Jokic well with this incredible poster dunk:


Yikes. This finish is likely to be remembered as one of the best dunks of this season, if not better. Jokic is known more for his offense than for his rim protection, but this isn’t the sort of thing opponents do to him every day.

This play was the highlight of the night for Wiggins (and for the NBA as a whole), but it was just one of his buckets in a terrific performance. One day after posting 41 points in a narrow loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wiggins scored 40 on 15-of-26 shooting to lead Minnesota to a 112-99 win.


Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points and 19 rebounds, but it was clearly Wiggins who ran the show for the Wolves. He didn’t just put together the first back-to-back 40-point games of his career — he’s only the fourth player younger than 22 years old ever to do it:

It remains to be seen if Wiggins can build on these two games. His 22.9 per-game scoring average is the best of his career, but he’s needed 18.4 shots a night to get it and holds a respectable, though not especially impressive, 16.7 PER. In other words, Wiggins is a talented player who doesn’t yet look like a no-doubt star, which has to rate him below the expectations that came with being the first pick in the 2014 draft. At the same time, the ability is clearly there, and Wiggins could very well fulfill his potential over the next few months. Perhaps this stretch is just what he needs.

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Jokic, for his part, still gets to have fun at All-Star Weekend. Hopefully no one asks him what he did on Wednesday to prepare.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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