Jokic will miss at least four weeks after suffering a knee hyperextension, but early reports suggest he avoided serious ligament damage.
The Denver Nuggets and the entire basketball world held their breath on Monday night when three-time MVP Nikola Jokic went down hard against the Miami Heat, grabbing at his left knee with just seconds left in the first half.
Now, according to ESPN's Shams Charania, the Nuggets can exhale a little bit after learning that Jokic's MRI revealed no ligament damage and that he will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
The Injury and What We Know
The scary moment happened when teammate Spencer Jones accidentally stepped on Jokic's left foot while backtracking on defense, which caused the big man's knee to buckle and hyperextend backward.
Jokic collapsed to the court in clear pain and had to be helped up before limping off under his own power and heading straight to the locker room, and he did not return for the second half of Denver's 147-123 loss.
Before exiting the game, Jokic had already put up 21 points, eight assists, and five rebounds in just 19 minutes of action.
While the initial look of the injury was frightening and had many fearing an ACL tear, the news on Tuesday morning brought relief to Nuggets fans everywhere.
According to Charania, testing confirmed that Jokic's knee ligaments are intact, though this will still be the longest absence of his career.
The Serbian outlet Meridian Sport was first to report the encouraging news that initial scans showed no serious structural damage.
A Season Plagued by Injuries
The timing of this injury could not be worse for a Denver team that has already been dealing with major injury problems all season long.
The Nuggets were playing Monday's game without three other starters in Christian Braun (left ankle sprain), Aaron Gordon (right hamstring strain), and Cam Johnson (right knee injury management), which made Jokic's workload even heavier than usual.'
"It's kind of gut-wrenching, especially somebody as special as he is," head coach David Adelman said after the game. "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."
The Nuggets currently sit at 22-10 and hold the third spot in the Western Conference, and much of that success is due to Jokic carrying the team through its injury-plagued campaign.
Jokic's Remarkable Season
What makes this injury even more painful is the fact that Jokic has been putting together one of the most remarkable individual seasons in NBA history.
Coming into Monday's game, the three-time MVP was averaging 29.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 11.1 assists per game, which put him on pace for back-to-back seasons of averaging a triple-double.
His efficiency this year has been off the charts as well, shooting 60.4 percent from the field and 44.0 percent from three-point range while also making 85.5 percent of his free throws.
Jokic leads the entire league in both rebounds and assists while also ranking near the top in scoring, and he was the clear frontrunner in the MVP race before this setback.
Just five days ago on Christmas Day, Jokic put up one of the most ridiculous stat lines in NBA history with 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That performance made him just the second player ever to record a game with at least 50 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 assists.
"The things that he's doing this year are really remarkable," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Monday's game.
Jokic has been one of the most durable players in the league throughout his career and has played in at least 69 games in each of his first 10 seasons.
He had appeared in all 31 of Denver's games this year before the injury, so this four-week absence will be uncharted territory for both him and the team.
The Nuggets will now have to find a way to survive without their superstar in a loaded Western Conference, with Jonas Valanciunas stepping into the starting lineup as the backup center.
Denver's next game is Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors, and the team is hoping to get Braun and Gordon back at some point during their current road trip to help ease the burden.