In his return to the lineup on Friday, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic showed just what his team missed from him when he was out for three games. In his return from a hip injury that kept him out most of the week, the 21-year-old big man delivered the first triple double of his young career.
Jokic came close to a triple double before, in fact he nearly reached the accomplishment twice in January, but fell two assists shy on Jan. 12 and Jan.26. He came two rebounds shy of a triple double on Dec.28 and one assist shy on the memorable night of Dec. 19 when he finished with 27 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists. Now Jokic can cross off that first triple double off the career bucket list.
On Friday night, Jokic saw a full workload with 32 minutes on the court and he earned every second of it. He finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assist and shot effectively on top of that with a 53 field goal percentage and he sunk two of four attempts from the three-point line. To top it all off, the Nuggets pulled out the win and inched closer to the eighth seed in the western conference.
As long as there are no reports of a setback or soreness on Saturday morning, fantasy owners and Nuggets fans should look forward to witnessing Jokic do even more as the season unfolds and they watch the next great, young big man in the NBA develop into a star.