The three-time MVP will miss four weeks with a knee injury, as the Nuggets are now without four of their five starters due to ailments.
The biggest takeaway from the Denver Nuggets’ 147–123 loss to the Miami Heat on Monday wasn’t the fact that the Nuggets suffered their biggest defeat of the 2025–2026 NBA season.
It was that their franchise player, and arguably the league’s best player, Nikola Jokic, suffered a knee injury and left the game. Jokic logged fewer than 20 minutes before having his left knee hyperextended, and many Denver fans feared for the worse.
On Tuesday, the team and its fanbase received both good news and bad news. The bad news is obvious, as the three-time MVP is guaranteed to miss time. However, the good news is that the injury isn’t as bad as initially feared. Jokic was diagnosed with a bone bruise and hyperextension of his knee, and his initial timetable to return is four weeks. The team will reevaluate him at that point, but those in Denver can breathe a sigh of relief that it’s not a season-ending injury.
With three seconds left in the first half of Monday’s game, Denver’s Spencer Jones was defending a drive when he took a step back, landing on Jokic’s foot and pushing his planted left leg backward, causing the hyperextension. Jokic immediately fell to the ground, grabbing his knee in pain. He then limped to the locker room and did not return for the second half.
The game was tied at 63 when Jokic left, but the injury clearly deflated the team as Miami then outscored Denver by 11 points in the third quarter and by 13 points in the fourth.
In his one half of play, Jokic was on pace for a triple-double with 21 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. He leads the league in triple-doubles, with 16 across 32 games, averaging one every two games. He’s also averaging a triple-double for the season, with 29.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, and 11 assists. Both his rebounds and assists averages lead the NBA, while his 29.6 points tie his career high.
The Nuggets will now have to find a way to stay afloat for the next month, at least, without the fulcrum of both their offense and their defense, and past results indicate that will be a challenge.
Over the last five seasons, the Nuggets are just 13–23 without Jokic in the lineup. That amounts to a .361 win–loss percentage, and for comparison, Denver is 217–107 with Jokic in the lineup over that span, a .670 ratio.
Adding to Denver’s woes is that Jokic will have plenty of company on the bench while he heals, as the team was already missing three starters. Christian Braun has been out since Nov. 12 with a sprained ankle and was initially given a reevaluation period of six weeks. But it’s been seven weeks thus far, and there is no sign of him returning anytime soon.
Then, Aaron Gordon went down on Nov. 21 with a strained hamstring and is halfway through his reevaluation period of four to six weeks. Finally, just a week ago, Cameron Johnson suffered a knee injury on Dec. 23, and, like Gordon, is expected to miss four to six weeks.
All of these ailments now leave point guard Jamal Murray as the only healthy starter for Denver, which started the season with a 20–6 record but is just 2–4 over its last six games. Entering play on Tuesday, the Nuggets still sit at third in the Western Conference, but just three games separate them from the No. 7 seeded Phoenix Suns.
Jokic, a seven-time All-NBA selection, has finished either first (three times) or second (two times) in MVP voting in each of the last five seasons. If he misses a month, that’s roughly 16 games, which means he would then have to suit up for every game over the rest of the season to meet the NBA’s minimum of 66 games played to qualify for end-of-season awards, such as another MVP or All-NBA selection.
While his stats draw most of the attention, one shouldn’t overlook Jokic’s durability as a reason for his greatness, as he’s been one of the NBA’s iron men since entering the league. Since his rookie season in 2015–2016, his 777 games played rank third in the NBA when counting from that season, trailing only Harrison Barnes (784) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (782). Also, since Jokic became a full-time starter in the 2017–2018 season, his 20,974 minutes played are second-most in the league, only behind DeMar DeRozan (22,021).
With Jokic out for the time being, Denver will heavily rely on another European center in Jonas Valanciunas. The 14-year vet was traded for in the offseason as an insurance policy for Jokic and has been a starter for most of his career. He has yet to play more than 19 minutes in any game this season, but he won’t suffer from a lack of playing time over the next month or so.
