Nuggets' Nikola Jokic breaks silence on ankle injury after returning vs. Bucks
03/27/2025 02:41 AM
Denver Nuggets superstar big man Nikola Jokic didn’t miss a beat despite missing five games in a row.
In his first game back from an ankle injury, the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player helped his team dismantle the Milwaukee Bucks in a 127-117 victory, as he finished with 39 points, 10 boards and 10 assists while making 16 of his 25 attempts from the field in 38 minutes.
After the Bucks game, Jokict reflected on his time away from the court to nurse his injury.
"It was just smart,” Jokic said (h/t Bennett Durando of The Denver Post). “I couldn't really jump on my left leg. So it was really painful, and it was just better to feel good. I don't want to be on the floor and feel nervous because I cannot play how I want to play and on the level I want to play."
The 30-year-old Serbian star also admitted that the pain in his ankle isn’t completely gone yet but is definitely more manageable now.
"I still feel it, but it hurts much, much, much, much, much less than it did before," Nikola Jokic shared (h/t Ryan Blackburn of Mile High Sports).
In any case, Jokic’s performance against the Bucks clearly showed that he is healthy and ready to help Denver in the stretch run of the 2024-25 NBA regular season. So far this season, he is averaging 29.3 points on 57.6 percent shooting from the field with 12.8 rebounds and 10.3 assists through 63 games.
He is on pace to finish the campaign with a triple-double average, which will make him just the first player since Russell Westbrook, his current teammate, to do it in the 2020-21 season when the guard was still playing for the Washington Wizards.
The Nuggets improved to 46-28 after their win over Milwaukee, and they are still a game behind the Houston Rockets for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference standings. Denver can still overtake the Rockets for that spot, as the Nuggets have eight more games left to play, including a regular-season finale matchup versus the Houston Rockets on the road on April 13 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets will look to add another win on Friday when they host the Utah Jazz.
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