Spurs All-Star Victor Wembanyama will not participate in the game after reaching eligibility in his previous game.
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Jokic has played 64 games and was listed as questionable with a right wrist injury.
Denver needs a win over the Spurs on Sunday to secure third place in the Western Conference. A Nuggets loss, along with a Los Angeles Lakers win, would drop the Nuggets into fourth place and move the Lakers into third.
The NBA requires players to participate in 65 games to be eligible for MVP, All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Jokic must play at least 15 minutes against San Antonio to be eligible.
The NBA allows two exemptions from 15 to 19:59 minutes played to count as an official game. Jokic has one exemption left.
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“Yes, he’ll play the first half,” Denver coach David Adelman said. “Then we’ll reconvene at halftime and see where he is, where the game is. That’s what the rules say. So we’ll follow the rules.”
Jokic, who won the MVP in 2021, 2022 and 2024, has been named to the All-NBA team in seven of his 11 seasons.
Wembanyama qualified to be eligible for the award by playing in his 65th game on Friday, in San Antonio’s 139-120 victory over Dallas.
Wembanyama competed in 64 regular season games plus the NBA Cup Final, which does not count toward the record or regular season statistics, but does qualify as one game played.
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Wembanyama suffered a left rib contusion and missed the second half of Monday’s 115-102 victory against the Philadelphia 76ers. He returned Friday to score 40 points and 13 rebounds in 26:13 minutes against Dallas.
He was listed as questionable due to injury management and was ruled out after the Spurs’ afternoon tour.
“Yeah, he’s fine, but he’s a little sore and he felt like it was the appropriate decision,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. “It was probably the closest call of the bunch to be honest, but right in that kind of middle ground.”
Spurs guard Stephon Castle became available after missing the last two games with left foot soreness.
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NBA AP: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA