Friday night was supposed to be a milestone for the Denver Nuggets. For the first time since Nov. 12, their original starting lineup was back on the floor together. It lasted less than half an hour.
With just over a minute left in the second quarter, Jamal Murray hobbled to the locker room, and what had felt like a turning point for Denver suddenly turned into another injury setback in a season that has refused to give them a clean run.
Jamal Murray’s Injury Unfolded Against New York
The sequence itself was an unfortunate collision of circumstances. Murray was defending a drive by OG Anunoby in the lane when contact was made, causing him to fall backward and land directly on the foot of his own teammate, Nikola Jokić.
It was the kind of freak accident that requires no one to be at fault and is still devastating. Murray hit the floor immediately and grabbed at his left ankle, and it was clear from the moment he went down that he would not be finishing the half.
Jonas Valančiūnas helped him to the locker room, with Murray visibly grimacing and unable to put full weight on the leg. The Nuggets subsequently listed him as questionable to return with a left ankle sprain, and when the second half tipped off, he was nowhere near the court. Julian Strawther stepped into the starting role in his absence.
The timing stung in ways that went beyond the immediate game. Denver had just welcomed Aaron Gordon back from a hamstring injury that night, and Cam Johnson had also returned from a sprained right ankle.
The Nuggets finally had everyone available for the first time in nearly four months. But the celebration lasted roughly one quarter before Murray’s night came to a painful, premature end.
Before leaving, he had been pretty productive. He scored 12 points, 3 assists, and a block in 18 minutes, shooting 5-of-10 from the field. The Knicks led 65-42 at halftime, a deficit that became even steeper when the Anunoby charge challenge was upheld. The next moment, he was flipping the foul call onto Murray and sending Anunoby to the line for two made free throws.
What Would Murray’s Absence Mean for Denver Nuggets?
The concern around this injury is not purely about one game. Murray is in the middle of the finest individual season of his nine-year career. He earned his first All-Star selection last month and has been averaging 25.3 points, 7.2 assists, and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 48.4% from the field and a career-best 43.1% from three.
That shooting mark is particularly significant, as it makes him one of the most dangerous pick-and-roll operators in the league alongside Jokić. It is a combination that opposing defenses have no clean answer for.
The Nuggets entered Friday as the fifth seed in the Western Conference at 39-24, with genuine ambitions of climbing higher before the playoffs. A prolonged absence from Murray would narrow those ambitions considerably.
Denver already navigated a stretch without Jokić in January, and while the team showed admirable depth in that window, losing their second-best player heading into the final stretch of the regular season is a test of a different kind entirely.
No official timeline has been provided beyond the questionable designation from Friday night. The coming days, and whatever the team’s medical staff determines after further evaluation, will go a long way toward clarifying whether this is a minor scare or the beginning of a more disruptive absence for a franchise that can ill afford either.
