Two years after he won an NBA title, Nikola Jokic views the surging New York Knicks as a “top-five candidate” to end their 52-year championship drought. The Knicks beat Jokic's Denver Nuggets 122-112 on Wednesday for their fifth straight victory.

The best basketball player on the planet looked average, and the Knicks took advantage. Besieged by early foul trouble and flustered late by the Knicks’ aggressiveness, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic,

For a team that has struggled internally on defense for the better part of most of the year, the Knicks' strong performance shows that the team is improving when it matters most. The victory is New York's fifth straight and sixth victory in their last seven tries.