Last night, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic went down with a hip injury against the Phoenix Suns. During a defensive possession in the fourth quarter, Devin Booker drove into the lane while Jokic was defending the rim, contacting him with his knee and forcing an awkward landing for the Nuggets center. Jokic immediately went down and appeared in a lot of pain. He stayed down for several minutes before being helped off of the floor to an X-Ray room. He later emerged from the room and walked to the locker room but didn’t field questions from the media. The Nuggets released a statement sometime later, classifying the injury as a left hip strain.
As Nuggets PR says, Jokic is scheduled to have an MRI on the hip today to determine the severity of the injury. The entire process is a standard procedure to determine if there is structural damage that the X-Ray simply cannot see. Jokic appeared in good spirits in the locker room after the game and there was a sense of relief among many of the players and staff but we won’t know the extent of the injury until the results of the MRI are in.
In a game against the San Antonio Spurs recently, Jokic went down after experiencing a similar impact to the left hip area.
It is possible that the two injuries are connected, but nothing has been verified on the matter. Jokic continued to play through the injury during the Spurs game, and it didn’t appear to hinder his mobility or effectiveness on the floor. Both injuries do appear to be similar, and it’s possible that the play against Phoenix aggravated the previous incident, but as of now, there is no connection.
Denver Stiffs will have updates on the Jokic injury as they are made available.
Update (10:30 AM): Coach Malone stated today that Nikola will not travel with the team for their upcoming road games against the Suns and Los Angeles Lakers.
