Nuggets star Nikola Jokic out 4 weeks with left knee hyperextension but avoids ACL injury

DENVER — An MRI gave the Nuggets the best bad news of the year.

Nikola Jokic will miss at least four weeks while recovering from a hyperextended left knee, the team announced Tuesday, but his ACL was spared in an ominous-looking injury Monday night. Testing on Tuesday revealed no ligament damage that would entail season-ending surgery.

The Nuggets were playing the Miami Heat when Jokic crumpled to the ground holding his knee at the tail end of the first half. Denver’s Spencer Jones stepped on his left foot during a defensive possession, causing Jokic’s leg to extend then buckle. The three-time MVP center limped to the locker room and didn’t return to the game, which Denver went on to lose by 24 points. It was tied at halftime.

Jokic, 30, is averaging a career-high 29.6 points per game while leading the league in rebounds (12.2) and assists (11). He’s on pace to be the first player in NBA history to finish a season shooting 60% from the field and 40% from 3-point range. He hasn’t missed a game, and before his injury, the Nuggets (22-10) had not suffered consecutive losses all season. He’s one week removed from one of the most impressive statistical performances of his career, a 56-point triple-double to lead the Nuggets to an overtime win on Christmas.

Now, first-year coach David Adelman is tasked with navigating them through a daunting series of short- and long-term obstacles.

The immediate challenge: Jokic will be Denver’s fourth starter sidelined by an injury until either Aaron Gordon (hamstring) or Christian Braun (ankle) is cleared to play. Adelman has speculated that one or both of them could return during the current seven-game road trip, which started with losses in Orlando and Miami. In the meantime, Jamal Murray is the team’s only healthy starter as they prepare to face his hometown team Wednesday in Toronto. The starting lineup around him is likely to consist of Tim Hardaway Jr., Peyton Watson, Jones and Jonas Valanciunas.

The long-term challenge: This is the longest period of time the Nuggets will be without Jokic since he entered the prime of his career. He hasn’t missed more than five consecutive games since 2017. He has played in 93.3% of Denver’s regular-season contests since making his NBA debut in 2015. He has missed 56 total games in his career. The fewest he’s ever played was 69 in 2022-23.

Even a strict four-week timeline indicates the earliest Jokic could possibly return is Jan. 27 against Detroit. In that scenario, he would be out for 15 critical games as the Nuggets jockey for positioning in a top-heavy Western Conference.

They were in third place as they received Jokic’s test results Tuesday — one game back of San Antonio for second, but also only three games ahead of the seventh-place Phoenix Suns for a guaranteed playoff spot. It helps that 13 of Denver’s next 17 games are against Eastern Conference opponents, meaning fewer matchups with tiebreaker ramifications during Jokic’s absence.

Valanciunas will start in his place. The backup center minutes are more up in the air. Adelman has been reticent to use DaRon Holmes II at the NBA level — the Nuggets established a developmental plan for him primarily focused on the G League before the season — but Holmes did appear alongside Zeke Nnaji to start the fourth quarter of Monday’s game in Miami. Holmes and Nnaji both straddle the line between being a power forward and center, but Denver might have no choice but to rely on them under emergency circumstances.

Gordon has also been highly capable as a small-ball backup five in recent years when the Nuggets didn’t have an option as steady as Valanciunas. But the physical demand required of that role makes it risky for a player who’s been deterred by recurring hamstring and calf injuries. The Nuggets will want to be careful with his minutes and usage when he returns from the latest one. Jones, who has been replacing Gordon in the starting lineup at power forward, could be another option in smaller, five-out lineups.

The Nuggets have a net rating of 12.3 with Jokic on the court and a net rating of minus-6.3 in 445 minutes without him.

He was considered a front-runner to win his fourth MVP trophy before the knee injury, but now his candidacy is in doubt. Players are required to appear in a minimum of 65 games in order to have their names appear on end-of-year awards ballots. That means if Jokic misses at least 18 games while recovering, he’ll be ineligible for accolades, including MVP and All-NBA teams. He’s made either first- or second-team All-NBA in seven consecutive years.

Still, the Nuggets could breathe a sigh of relief Tuesday, even as they braced themselves for a month without their franchise player. In the immediate aftermath of the injury, they were confronted by encroaching thoughts of what a torn ligament might mean for their season. Playoff runs in 2021 and 2022 were already derailed by a torn ACL suffered by Murray.

“First thing that went through my mind was, ‘I hope it’s not what I had,'” he told reporters in Miami. “So (he’ll be OK) as long as that’s out of the equation.”