The Denver Nuggets and maybe the basketball world as a complete will maintain their collective breath after Nikola Jokić was injured on Monday.
Even a one-sided scoreboard might hardly fathom what the Denver Nuggets could have misplaced on Monday evening in South Seashore.
Being on the improper facet of a 147-123 choice to the Miami Warmth was the least of the Nuggets’ points: famous person franchise face, Nikola Jokić, missed the complete second half after teammate Spencer Jones made inadvertent contact along with his decrease physique.
The incident occurred within the last minute of the primary half earlier than Jokić limped to the locker room on his personal with the coaching employees trailing him. The Nuggets introduced Jokić had been recognized with a left knee harm and labeled him questionable to return. Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets star will endure an MRI on Tuesday.
“Instantly, he knew one thing was improper,” Nuggets coach David Adelman stated within the somber aftermath, in keeping with ESPN’s report. “That is a part of the NBA. Anyone who will get damage on this sport, it’s sort of gut-wrenching, particularly any individual as particular as he’s. We’ll discover out extra tomorrow. We’ll transfer on as a crew. Clearly, proper now, I’m extra involved nearly him as an individual and the frustration of going by one thing like that.”
Jokić’s MVP Season Carrying the Nuggets
Jokić, 30, has performed at the least 69 video games in every of his first 10 NBA seasons. The three-time MVP was dwelling as much as his repute, placing up 29.9 factors a sport, whereas main the league with 12.4 rebounds and 11.1 assists coming into Monday evening.
The Serbian native has come up significantly huge this season, as he’s the newest headlining Nugget to go down with an harm: Denver (22-10) has not seen Christian Braun (ankle) since mid-November, whereas Aaron Gordon endured a hamstring difficulty earlier this month. On Christmas, the Nuggets realized that they’d be with out Cameron Johnson for at the least 4 weeks due to a knee harm.
NIKOLA JOKIC 👏 1st 55/15/15 sport in NBA history2nd 50/15/15 sport in NBA historyMost factors ever in OT (18)third most factors on Christmas
Reminder: He had 61/10/10 in opposition to the Wolves earlier this yr https://t.co/JwD9WsO1Wc pic.twitter.com/kI8RgZFnrY
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 26, 2025
Due to the headlining efforts of Jokić, nevertheless, Denver has remained stationed within the prime three within the Western Convention. Even along with his harm, Jokić ended Monday evening as Denver’s main scorer with 21 tallies in 19 minutes of motion, pairing them with eight assists and 5 boards. With out Jokić, the Nuggets have been outscored by 24 within the second half en path to their worst lack of the 2025-26 season.
With the loss, the Nuggets dropped the primary two levels of a seven-game street journey, which started with a one-point defeat in Orlando on Saturday. Half three will likely be staged in Toronto on Wednesday (5:30 p.m. MT, Altitude) and function the final sport of the calendar yr.
This story will likely be up to date as occasions warrant.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X, @GeoffJMags
