If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Nikola Jokic believes. And in this case, it’s only sprained.
Jokic has used a shooting sleeve on his right arm three consecutive games after sustaining a mysterious elbow injury last Wednesday, purportedly while warming up for a game against Houston that night — even though he was already wearing the sleeve when he warmed up.
The specific origins of the sprain may never be known.
“It was just an accident,” Jokic said with an embarrassed laugh in the Nuggets’ locker room Tuesday night. “It was really stupid. It just happened.”
OK, but how, exactly?
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” he said. “It was just stupid. It’s a stupid move.”
When asked if he was working on a new basketball move, Jokic said no. “I’m not gonna say (how it happened),” he said. “It was just an accident.”
In any case, it might not be the cause that matters so much as the effect, in Jokic’s view. And the effect has been the application of that shooting sleeve, an accessory that almost seems out of place on the most bloodied and bruised arm in the NBA — the shooting arm of a three-time MVP center.
Jokic usually prefers to play sleeveless so he can show referees evidence of fouls, he told The Denver Post in 2024. But he has completed a triple-double by the end of the third quarter in all three games since the one he missed. The Nuggets have won all three games definitively, allowing him to rest the fourth quarter after playing with the sprained elbow.
“I learned a long time ago, you don’t joke with a winning streak,” he said when asked if the sleeve is temporary or permanent. “We are 3-0. So until we lose, it probably is going to be there.”
Jokic put the finishing touches on each sleeved-up masterpiece with panache. In his first game back on Friday, his 10th assist was a blind, over-the-head touch pass into Aaron Gordon’s pocket. On Tuesday against the 76ers, it was a no-look alley-oop to Gordon. Even Jokic admitted after the 144-109 win that he believes he’s playing the best basketball of his life.
“I don’t think any words I say will do him justice,” coach Michael Malone said.
The 29-year-old center has played in 37 of Denver’s first 43 games this season. He has registered a triple-double in 19 of them. That means if he plays every remaining game, notching triple-doubles at his current pace, he’ll finish with 39, which would be three shy of teammate Russell Westbrook’s single-season record set in 2016-17.
The only problem might be that Denver (27-16) is starting to blow teams out, reducing Jokic’s minutes and stats in theory. But in practice, 14 of his 19 triple-doubles so far have been completed before the fourth quarter.
“For him to not have to play down the stretch (in games), to rest his body … that’s invaluable as we move forward,” Malone said. “We know what the Western Conference is. How deep it is, how talented it is.”
As of Wednesday, Jokic ranks third in the league in scoring (30.1 points per game), third in rebounding (13.2), second in assists (9.9), second in 3-point percentage (47.5%) and fourth in steals (1.9), a sign of his defensive growth. The majority of his steals have been a product of his gradual improvement at anticipating passes while guarding at the level of the screen.
But even for someone as pragmatic as Jokic, whose self-ascribed approach to basketball is to relentlessly read and react, superstition can play a surprisingly important role.
“I’m just like, why change it?” he said of the sleeve. Maybe that sounds superstitious, but Jokic is, “when it comes to winning.”