Nikola Jokic makes NBA history in Nuggets Wizards

Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is widely considered the leading candidate for the 2025 NBA MVP award. Jokic is already a three-time MVP and certainly has a strong case for a fourth-place finish.

Posting one of the best stats of his NBA career on Saturday night against the Washington Wizards, Jokic finished the game with 56 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists. While that line wasn’t enough to secure a win against a Wizards team that had lost 16 straight games, it was a historic game for Jokic.

According to Basketball Reference’s StatHead, Jokic’s performance on Saturday marked just the third time in NBA history that a player had 56 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists in a game. The other two examples were Elgin Baylor (1959) and Luka Doncic (2022).

Despite being without two starters in Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, this was still a very disappointing loss for Denver against the worst team in the NBA. As has often been the case with the Nuggets this season, a monster performance from Jokic wasn’t enough to secure the win.

In addition to Jokic’s great play, the Nuggets got solid production from Russell Westbrook in the starting lineup. The 17-year veteran, filling in for Murray, finished the game with seven points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds and four steals in 32 minutes of play. This is the Nuggets’ first loss with Westbrook in the starting lineup (3-1).

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