Injury Update: Are Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon playing in game of year vs Thunder

Sunday marks one of the most highly anticipated games of the NBA regular season as the Denver Nuggets travel to Oklahoma City for back-to-back games against the Thunder. OKC comes into this miniseries with a 52-11 record and the Western Conference’s number one seed all but locked up.

After the Lakers’ loss on Saturday night to the Celtics, the Nuggets moved back up to the number two seed in the West, but at 41-22, they still trail OKC by a whopping 11 games. Denver isn’t going to catch them for the one seed, but they could make quite a statement and put the Thunder on notice ahead of a potential playoff meeting down the road.

Beyond a potential Western Conference Finals preview, this baseball series will likely also go a long way in deciding this season’s MVP Award. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the favorite for months, but Nikola Jokic simply won’t go away and has made the race closer than ever after his 31/21/22 performance on Friday night.

Despite the incredible season he’s having, Jokic will have to overcome voter fatigue and SGA’s team success to win the award for a fourth time in five years. But this is a narrative-driven award, and if Jokic can dominate these two games in Oklahoma City, he may be able to push the discourse back in his favor. But will we see all the stars in action?

Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon officially listed as probable

Last Sunday, we saw Jokic limp around in Boston and after the game, he made reference to an injury that he was dealing with. He was listed as questionable for the past two games with ankle inflammation, but played through the injury and obviously wasn’t hampered much as he torched the Suns for one of the best individual games in NBA history.

Aaron Gordon had missed three games in a row with his own ankle injury, but returned on Friday and lit up Phoenix for 27 points and 7 three-pointers. Both Gordon and Jokic are officially listed as probable for Sunday’s game against the Thunder and they are expected to play. 

This comes as no surprise after they played on Friday and looked great. The Nuggets are in a pretty good position with 19 games left before the playoffs, but they still haven’t gotten to build a great chemistry with their full rotation intact and they’ve struggled against the league’s top teams.

These next two days provide an excellent opportunity for the Nuggets to measure themselves against the class of the conference and treat these games like a playoff series. They should shorten the rotation and run guys heavy minutes to try and simulate a playoff situation in a potentially hostile environment.

These are the kinds of games that Denver will have to win at some point if they want to make a run, so they might as well start now. Winning these games would go a long way in building confidence and belief for a playoff run and it would go a long way in winning Nikola Jokic another MVP Award as well.