Then Jokic really got Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Jr. involved, tossing 15 assists. And while doing all of that, Jokic had a game-high 16 rebounds. It was his 15th triple-double of the season and the ninth recorded before the third quarter ended, and the first 55-15-15 game in league history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re watching history on a night-to-night basis,\u201d forward Peyton Watson said afterward<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s why I want to continue to stress to the fans just how important it is to show up here and really enjoy this and really not take this for granted, because this is something that doesn\u2019t happen again. We will never see anything like this again.\u201d<\/p>\n Simply put, it was what pro sports are all about: the absolute best at their absolute best.<\/a><\/p>\n NIKOLA JOKI\u0106 WITH VIDEO GAME STATS ON CHRISTMAS DAY \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n \ud83c\udccf 56 PTS THE FIRST 55\/15\/15 GAME IN NBA HISTORY \ud83d\udea8 pic.twitter.com\/8LPXlFWO6V<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NBA (@NBA) December 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n St. Nik needed to deliver on Christmas night for the Nuggets, too. Coal was put in the team\u2019s stockings earlier this week when Cameron Johnson joined the already injured Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun as the third starter sidelined with an ailment. Johnson will miss at least a month due to a bone bruise in his right knee, elevating Tim Hardaway Jr. into the starting five. Hardaway finished as the third wheel with 19 points to a heavy Jokic-Murray two-man game.<\/p>\n While it was a record high temperature in Denver again for Christmas, Murray made a flurry from deep \u2014 connecting on nine triples, the sixth-most in franchise history. He blizzarded for 35 points and 10 assists as he and Jokic became the first teammates in league history to combine for 90 or more points and 25-plus assists in the same game. Murray drilled the biggest shot of the night: a triple with 36 seconds left in overtime that gave the Nuggets a lead they never relinquished.<\/p>\n JAMAL MURRAY BROUGHT THE HEAT TO CHRISTMAS DAY! <\/p>\n \ud83d\udd25 35 PTS He joins Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Tracy McGrady with the only 35-PT, 10-AST, 5-3PM games in #NBAXmas<\/a> history. pic.twitter.com\/LithevHmF5<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NBA (@NBA) December 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Murray more than atoned for his fourth-quarter turnover with seven seconds left, which the Wolves converted to trim the deficit to one. That giveaway was part of a dizzying sequence in which Denver fouled Anthony Edwards on a 3-point attempt and ultimately squandered a 15-point lead in the final five minutes. Edwards buried a fadeaway buzzer-beater from the corner to send the game into overtime. Minnesota roared on a wild 33-9 run spanning the end of regulation and the opening of the extra period, seizing a nine-point advantage in overtime.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have some really, really good players over here,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cWe had the opportunity to finish the game. We didn\u2019t finish the game in regulation, and we found a way to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n But Edwards\u2019 44-point inferno \u2014 24 of them scorching through the fourth quarter and overtime \u2014 still couldn\u2019t outshine Denver\u2019s supernova. The league\u2019s most efficient offense found another gear when it mattered most.<\/p>\n Edwards\u2019 night ended early when he raged his way into an ejection with under a minute remaining in overtime, following his big man Gobert, who had already fouled out. To the Wolves\u2019 frustration, Jokic tied a Christmas Day record with 22 made free throws \u2014 a career high.<\/p>\n After going scoreless for the first two minutes of overtime, Denver called a timeout and proceeded to set an NBA record for most points in an overtime period at 27, led by Jokic\u2019s record-setting 18 points in the extra frame, breaking Stephen Curry\u2019s mark of 17 from 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds crazy, but I didn\u2019t think we were completely out of it,\u201d head coach David Adelman said. \u201cJust because the way that game was, the shot-making and the star players doing what they did, you just felt like there were more moments to the game if we could just get ourselves back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer Jones delivered two critical pin-down screens that freed Jokic for 3-pointers that sandwiched a Hardaway Jr. triple in transition. The first for Joker came when Jones knocked off his defender, All-Defensive Team member Jaden McDaniels, for an open look; on the second, when Minnesota switched, Jones screened his own man to spring the three-time MVP \u2014 again catching out Gobert and McDaniels.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, it\u2019s a one-possession game, just like that,\u201d Adelman said.<\/p>\n Then Jokic\u2019s gifts kept coming \u2014 with another bucket wrapped in an impossible angle to tie the game back up.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say this because I\u2019ve been on the other side of it: They\u2019re going to show this game 20 years from now, and I\u2019ll crack open the beer and watch it,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cThere are other ones that I flip on NBA TV, and I immediately turn the channel.\u201d<\/p>\n The rivalry between these franchises demanded such theater. Denver led Minnesota 3-2 in the second round of the 2024 playoffs before suffering the worst postseason loss by margin in club history<\/a>, a 20-point blown lead in Game 7<\/a> and a regular-season sweep in 2024-25 that included two blowouts and two collapses \u2014 one that ultimately precipitated Michael Malone\u2019s departure. These franchises have traded haymakers for three seasons now, 27 bruising rounds that left both bloodied, but the Nuggets may be the last ones standing. They appear to have exorcised whatever demons lingered via three consecutive wins.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re one of the best teams in the league. They have been for years,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge to play them. I think it\u2019s just experience, and it\u2019s going to teeter-totter with these two teams. We know each other so well.\u201d<\/p>\n Even still, the Wolves staged their comeback, conjuring flashbacks to the teams\u2019 last meeting in Denver \u2014 that gut-wrenching double-overtime loss late last season.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou never forget those things, but I think that\u2019s for the better,\u201d Watson said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody here is scared of the moment. That team is a team full of fighters, full of competitors, full of great players. We knew tonight was going to be a dogfight.\u201d<\/p>\n The ghosts of Game 7 will keep howling from Minneapolis and growing louder until Denver snags another ring. On this night, there were 56 reasons to believe Saint Nik is more powerful than Ant-a Clause.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for the Nuggets?<\/p>\n Thursday was the last Nuggets game in Denver for 2025; the team tips off a season-long seven-game road trip on Saturday in Orlando. They hope to get Braun and Gordon back on the road, though Adelman has still not set a timeline on either player.<\/p>\n DA says it\u2019s a historic night and one Jokic\u2019s five best games as a Nugget. Ton of praise for his decision making pic.twitter.com\/8NN67MfC9v<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jake Shapiro, but festive \ud83d\udc7b\ud83e\udd83\ud83c\udf84 (@Shapalicious) December 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n
\ud83c\udccf 16 REB
\ud83c\udccf 15 AST
\ud83c\udccf 2 BLK
\ud83c\udccf 4 3PM<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udd25 10 AST
\ud83d\udd25 9 3PM (most ever in Christmas Day game)<\/p>\n
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