{"id":511454,"date":"2026-01-02T08:48:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511454\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:48:35","slug":"why-nikola-jokic-isnt-playing-for-nuggets-tonight-vs-raptors-with-injury-news-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511454\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Nikola Jokic isn’t playing for Nuggets tonight vs. Raptors with injury news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Nikola Jokic isn’t playing for Nuggets tonight vs. Raptors with injury news<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Denver Nuggets<\/a> will look to bounce back from a lopsided 147-123 loss to the Miami Heat<\/a> earlier this week when they face the Toronto Raptors<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, Nikola Jokic is one of four starters inactive for the franchise\u2019s upcoming clash.<\/p>\n

Why Nikola Jokic isn\u2019t playing for the Nuggets tonight vs. Raptors with injury news<\/p>\n

Jokic suffered a lower-body injury against the Heat in the first half and was unable to finish the contest. The three-time MVP will join Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, and Cameron Johnson on Denver\u2019s injury list.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania detailed Jokic\u2019s injury and provided a return timeline<\/a> for the 31-year-old phenomenon.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust in: Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic has been diagnosed with a hyperextension in his left knee and will miss at least four weeks,\u201d Charania wrote on X\/Twitter. \u201cAn immense sigh of relief as tests show the three-time NBA MVP’s knee ligaments are intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJokic is in the midst of a historic campaign so far, and this will be the most time he has ever missed through 11 NBA seasons, having played in 69-70+ games in all 10 previous years. Denver avoided a catastrophic injury Monday night in Miami, but now is down four of five starters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Jokic, the Nuggets\u2019 offensive efficiency\/productivity will suffer. The former second-round pick is among the main reasons Denver is challenging to contain on that end of the floor nightly.<\/p>\n

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If the Nuggets can survive with Jokic out of the lineup for several games, it will say a lot about the future Hall of Fame center\u2019s supporting cast.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Proposed Lakers trade reunites LeBron James with $90 million NBA champion forward<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Nikola Jokic isn’t playing for Nuggets tonight vs. Raptors with injury news originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[877,7,2726,561,187,189,6,253,681,567,1415,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-511454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cameron-johnson","11":"tag-christian-braun","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nikola-jokic","16":"tag-raptors","17":"tag-shams-charania","18":"tag-the-nuggets","19":"tag-toronto","20":"tag-toronto-raptors","21":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115824643530930062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}