NBA journey 67
One of the greatest figures in world football was injured yesterday morning, amid notorious gestures of pain. Nikola Jokic, Serbian center of the Denver Nuggets, suffered a loss on the left wheel just seconds after the break during the 147-123 loss at the home of the Miami Heat and had to leave the track hoping, supporting something heavy in the joint. The 30-year-old, who was establishing another colossal campaign in front of the Colorado franchise, broke away while patrolling the board and his partner Spencer Jones gave him a blow without intending to stomp the ground during a defensive action against Jaime Jáquez.
Jokic, not inclined to exaggeration, threw a few falls on the parquet and grabbed the damaged wheel with one hand, on which this same marte will undergo all kinds of medical tests to confirm the extent of the injury. The worst scenario envisaged is a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, which would imply a definitive loss of the current campaign, although in the best case it would be a hyperextension of a wheel with injury to the bone, a minor injury.
“I guess something is wrong immediately. It’s like in the NBA. When someone does damage, it’s devastating, but even when someone is so special,” commented David Adelman, coach of Denver, third in the Western Conference with 20 wins and 10 losses. “We will know more things tomorrow and we will have to turn the page as a group. At the moment I am more worried about him as a person, going through this is always hard and unhappy, but let’s keep our fingers crossed,” said the technician.
At the time of his injury, Jokic was commanding the Nuggets’ operations with 21 points, five rebounds and eight assists, and the score at rest was tied at 63. But on the floor, the Colorado team disappeared like a candy cane in the second half and won for the first time in Miami since 2018. “It’s not only a big part of us, but it’s practically our everything,” says Jamal Murray, the team’s Canadian base and main pairing. Serbian dance. interior.
The Serbian pivot, three-time NBA MVP and leader of the championship group in Denver in 2023, averaged 29.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists per game in 32 regular season games with an accuracy of 60.5% on field goals and 43.5% on triples. Anoche, the first vote tally for the All Star, stands as the third most supported player among fans, just behind Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. That same month of December, the Sombor-born midfielder surpassed Wilt Chamberlain’s assist record and signed an unprecedented triple-double in the history of the competition – a record 18 points in the first round included – during the Christmas holidays.
In the past, Jokic only had injury problems. During his 11 campaigns in the United States, he has never missed more than 13 games out of the 82 scheduled each season, and over the last five years, he has been absent from a total of 36. Since his debut in the NBA, the Nuggets’ record is 22 wins and 34 losses. “My mind will wander tonight, and it will inevitably wonder what we need to do here in advance if we lose, it will be a little or a lot of time,” Adelman concluded, visibly dejected.
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