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The Denver Nuggets will be without one of their star players for at least a few games.
Nikola Jokic, who sprained his left ankle Thursday against the Chicago Bulls, will miss “several games,” per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The good news is the MRI on his ankle was negative.
Denver star Nikola Jokic is expected to miss several games with left ankle sprain, but MRI results were negative on Friday, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 1, 2017
Jokic hurt the ankle in the first half of Denver's 111-110 win over Chicago. Reports state that he fell immediately to the floor when he hurt it, and clutched his ankle, per Nick Groke of the Denver Post.
Jokic drove to his left with less than a minute remaining in the first half, trying to beat Chicago guard Jerian Grant through the lane. But when Jokic picked up his dribble, he planted his left foot on Grant’s right foot and twisted his ankle flat to the court.
Nuggets head coach Mike Malone sounded relieved Thursday when Jokic was diagnosed with a sprain.
“I’ll go back and talk to our docs. Thank goodness it’s only a sprain,” Malone said. “Good thing is, he’s not an athletic big, so he doesn’t have to jump a lot.”
Jokic is arguably Denver's best player, and is averaging 15.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game this season, per Basketball Reference.
It's good that the injury isn't severe because the Nuggets are going to need Jokic healthy if they want to make a run at the playoffs this season.
