Nikola Jokic misses NBA Cup game, Nuggets flounder; cause for concern?

For the first time in the 2024-25 NBA season, the Nuggets played a game without the MVP, Nikola Jokic on Friday night. Unsurprisingly, they lost to the Pelicans, 101-94 in New Orleans. The Pelicans entered the night with a 3-9 record and were missing several key players, including Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, and others.

Yet still, without the Joker, the Nuggets looked lost, especially on offense, scoring more than 22 points in just one quarter. One might have hoped that this would be a breakout game for Jamal Murray, but that wasn’t the case as he scored just 16 points on 6/16 shooting in 42 minutes.

Major blow to Nuggets’ NBA Cup chances

It’s hardly the end of the world, as the Nuggets are now 7-4 on the season, but it puts a major dent into their NBA Cup chances. The Nuggets will now almost certainly need to sweep their remaining group play games against the Grizzlies, Mavericks, and Warriors. They’ll likely also need to build up an impressive point differential for the potential tiebreaker.

On paper, this was the easiest game in group play, but without Jokic, the Nuggets never really had a chance. If anything, this should just serve as another reminder of how incredible Jokic has been, and how important he is to everything the Nuggets do. Without him, they would likely not even be a playoff team and you saw why on Friday night.

Cause for concern with Jokic?

Luckily, it seems like there is no real reason for concern around Jokic. Katy Winge reported that he and his family were fine, and Altitude TV suggested that he was away from the team for the birth of his son. We don’t want to speculate and want to respect Jokic’s privacy, but it sounds like this was a planned absence and no reason for concern.

It sounds like Nikola and his loved ones are all in great shape and he should be back with the team soon enough. If there is any concern, it’s probably just how hopeless the rest of the team looks without him. It was definitely disappointing to see Murray incapable of raising his game and taking on a bigger burden.

But at the end of the day, this shouldn’t be revelatory. We all know that the Nuggets’ title chances start and end with Jokic. If he’s not around, the team isn’t going anywhere. So just be grateful that nothing is wrong and hopefully, we’ll see him back on the court shortly.