A source told ESPN that medical testing on Wednesday revealed no structural damage to the Denver Nuggets' center or Nikola Jokic, the reigning NBA MVP, and that there was no injury to his knee.
Jokic was injured in the right knee during the second quarter against the Jazz. He was unable to play the rest of the 122-110 loss at Utah.
Jokic reported Wednesday morning that his knee felt sore. However, the star seems to have avoided serious injury.
Rudy Gobert, a jazz center, was trying to drive Jokic along the baseline Tuesday when he collided with him. Jokic fell almost immediately and seemed to be in great pain while he held onto his right knee.
Jokic was left out of the game at 1:54 in the second quarter. The team initially had Jokic listed as questionable to come back. Jokic was still on the court during warm-ups at the halftime break, but coach Mike Malone spoke to him and decided to keep him out of the rest of the game.
Malone stated that Malone had said, "He said it felt a little weak and I just shut him up," after the loss. "I made the decision. It's not his decision."
Malone added, "What I have learned about Nikola was that if you leave the decision up to Nikola, then he will play every game. Sometimes I have to make the decisions for him. It doesn't make sense to me that he said it felt a little weak to play in halftime. That is true for all players. ... It was just not logical to send Nikola out for another night of back-to-backs and run the risk of further damage.
Jamal Murray, the Nuggets' star guard, is still in recovery from an ACL tear he sustained in April.
Jokic was awarded his first MVP award last year and is now on a roll. Jokic scored 24 points, had 6 rebounds and 6 assist and made 8 out of 9 shots against Utah in the first quarter. Jokic entered Tuesday's game with an average of 27.7 points and 16.0 rebounds, as well as 4.0 assists.
