Nikola Jokić Injured as Nuggets Fall to Heat

The Denver Nuggets and perhaps the basketball world as a whole will hold their collective breath after Nikola Jokić was injured on Monday.

Even a one-sided scoreboard could hardly fathom what the Denver Nuggets may have lost on Monday night in South Beach.

Being on the wrong side of a 147-123 decision to the Miami Heat was the least of the Nuggets’ issues: superstar franchise face, Nikola Jokić, missed the entire second half after teammate Spencer Jones made inadvertent contact with his lower body.

The incident occurred in the final minute of the first half before Jokić limped to the locker room on his own with the training staff trailing him. The Nuggets announced Jokić had been diagnosed with a left knee injury and labeled him questionable to return. Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets star will undergo an MRI on Tuesday.

“Immediately, he knew something was wrong,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said in the somber aftermath, according to ESPN’s report. “This is part of the NBA. Anybody who gets hurt in this game, it’s kind of gut-wrenching, especially somebody as special as he is. We’ll find out more tomorrow. We’ll move on as a team. Obviously, right now, I’m more concerned just about him as a person and the disappointment of going through something like that.”

Jokić’s MVP Season Carrying the Nuggets

Jokić, 30, has played at least 69 games in each of his first 10 NBA seasons. The three-time MVP was living up to his reputation, putting up 29.9 points a game, while leading the league with 12.4 rebounds and 11.1 assists entering Monday night.

The Serbian native has come up particularly big this season, as he’s the latest headlining Nugget to go down with an injury: Denver (22-10) has not seen Christian Braun (ankle) since mid-November, while Aaron Gordon endured a hamstring issue earlier this month. On Christmas, the Nuggets learned that they’d be without Cameron Johnson for at least four weeks thanks to a knee injury.

NIKOLA JOKIC
1st 55/15/15 game in NBA history
2nd 50/15/15 game in NBA history
Most points ever in OT (18)
3rd most points on Christmas

Reminder: He had 61/10/10 against the Wolves earlier this year https://t.co/JwD9WsO1Wc pic.twitter.com/kI8RgZFnrY

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 26, 2025

Thanks to the headlining efforts of Jokić, however, Denver has remained stationed in the top three in the Western Conference. Even with his injury, Jokić ended Monday night as Denver’s leading scorer with 21 tallies in 19 minutes of action, pairing them with eight assists and five boards. Without Jokić, the Nuggets were outscored by 24 in the second half en route to their worst loss of the 2025-26 season.

With the loss, the Nuggets dropped the first two stages of a seven-game road trip, which began with a one-point defeat in Orlando on Saturday. Part three will be staged in Toronto on Wednesday (5:30 p.m. MT, Altitude) and serve as the last game of the calendar year.

This story will be updated as events warrant.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X, @GeoffJMags