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 may hardly fathom what the Denver Nuggets could have misplaced on Monday evening in South Seashore.
Being on the incorrect facet of a 147-123 resolution to the Miami Warmth was the least of the Nuggets’ points: celebrity 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 closing 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 damage and labeled him questionable to return. Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets star will bear an MRI on Tuesday.
“Instantly, he knew one thing was incorrect,” Nuggets coach David Adelman stated within the somber aftermath, in accordance with ESPN’s report. “That is a part of the NBA. Anyone who will get damage on this recreation, it’s form of gut-wrenching, particularly anyone as particular as he’s. We’ll discover out extra tomorrow. We’ll transfer on as a group. Clearly, proper now, I’m extra involved nearly him as an individual and the frustration of going by way of one thing like that.”
Jokić’s MVP Season Carrying the Nuggets
Jokić, 30, has performed not less than 69 video games in every of his first 10 NBA seasons. The three-time MVP was residing as much as his popularity, placing up 29.9 factors a recreation, whereas main the league with 12.4 rebounds and 11.1 assists getting into Monday evening.
The Serbian native has come up notably huge this season, as he’s the most recent headlining Nugget to go down with an damage: Denver (22-10) has not seen Christian Braun (ankle) since mid-November, whereas Aaron Gordon endured a hamstring challenge earlier this month. On Christmas, the Nuggets discovered that they’d be with out Cameron Johnson for not less than 4 weeks because of a knee damage.
NIKOLA JOKIC 👏 1st 55/15/15 recreation in NBA history2nd 50/15/15 recreation in NBA historyMost factors ever in OT (18)third most factors on Christmas
Reminder: He had 61/10/10 towards the Wolves earlier this 12 months 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 damage, 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 had 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 probably be staged in Toronto on Wednesday (5:30 p.m. MT, Altitude) and function the final recreation of the calendar 12 months.
This story will probably be up to date as occasions warrant.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X, @GeoffJMags
