Jokic passes Kareem in NBA book, Murray sparks comeback win

No center in NBA history has thrown more assists than Nikola Jokic — the Nuggets star claimed the all-time record from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Thursday during Denver's win

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Dec 18, 2025, 9:53 PM

Follow on Google News

Watch: Nuggets trade Watson — Is the Championship window closing? | Stokley and Evans with Mark Schlereth | 9 mins

DENVER — No center in NBA history has thrown more assists than Nikola Jokic. The Denver Nuggets star claimed the all-time record from legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Thursday night during his team’s 126-115 win against the Orlando Magic.

Jokic tossed 13 helpers as part of a 23-point, 11-rebound triple-double as the Nuggets erased a 14-point second-quarter lead to take a 14-point lead going into half. That massive 35-7 turnaround run was led by an absolute heater from Jamal Murray, who scored 20 points in the frame on the back of five triples.

“It was one of those NBA games. It’s December, it was a really up-and-down game,” David Adelman said. “Wouldn’t call it the most beautiful thing ever seen, but it sure is beautiful when you win the game. We did a lot of things positively in that quarter. I thought the intensity in that quarter was through the roof… that was one of our best quarters of the season.”

The Nuggets took their first lead during that run and never looked back. The margin was the 23rd time in 26 games that Denver has led by at least a dozen at any point in a game. Much of it came with a strange lineup because of the massive number of injuries the team has sustained. Not only were Aaron Gordon and Christina Bruan still sideliend but Peyton Watson was absent after a hard fall on Monday. The former UCLA Bruin should be back soon; the other two, it could be a while.

That pushed Bruce Brown into the starting lineup for the first time this season and led Jalen Pickett into some big minutes, where he was a plus-17 with seven assists and nine points. The Nuggets even deployed some double big man lineups with Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas. They built a lead all the way up to 21 points, but the Magic fought back to tighten the screws late — not enough, though.

That was helped by Valanciunas’s 10 points, his eighth time in double figures this season; last year, Nuggets backup centers only achieved that mark five times. And Tim Hardaway Jr. was again into the double digits off the bench, his 19th time scoring that much in 26 games played. And Cameron Johnson tallied a season-high 11 rebounds to go with his 19 points.

“Cam, the first month, we talked about a lot, because he didn’t make shots or something,” Adelman said sarcastically. “Cam’s been okay, yeah?.. Cams has been pretty good for us this year, and we’re very excited on our team.”

NBA All-Time Assists Leaders

1: John Stockton 15,806
2: Chris Paul* 12,552
3: Jason Kidd 12,091
4:. LeBron James* 11,659
5: Steve Nash 10,335
…
48: Dwyane Wade 5,701
49: Larry Bird 5,695
50: Nikola Jokic* 5,667
51: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 5660
52: Chauncey Billups 5,636
53. Michael Jordan 5,633

“I think it’s such a cool thing, because it’s Kareem who was passed by LeBron as the all-time leading scorer, which puts in perspective who Nikola passed,” Adelman said. “So it’s a celebration of both people. It’s somebody that completely changed the game with the Skyhook, the longevity he played, I feel like we in the modern era, we talked about Tom Brady and all these people, go look at Kareem. I mean, the guy changed his name while he played. The guy played 20-plus years and to the very end was impactful on teams and went to the Finals.”

“For Nikola to pass him, says a lot. If we’re going to celebrate what LeBron did (taking Kareem’s scoring record). I know it’s a different kind of thing. It’s the center, it’s a position. I’ll just keep saying, just don’t get tired of this, because it’s unique.”

“And for those of us who love the history of the game, this is one that should be written about and talked about, and that should be a national story, because that’s passing a guy that you could argue you, just want to go by generations and the best player of all time, and all the talk-talk stuff Kareem is he’s in the conversation. Look at his MVPs. Look at the winning and our guy tonight from Denver just passed him in a category. So take that into account. Remember it.”

The one that made history https://t.co/xtsybgoet8 pic.twitter.com/NKbZ7wYoiT

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 19, 2025

What’s next for the Nuggets?

The Nuggets host the Rockets again on Saturday, for a rare matinee at 3 p.m. If Denver holds home court, they’ll win the season tiebreaker from Houston. The two teams have played twice this year, with each game coming down to a single possession. The most recent affair was on Monday, the best game and win of the year thus far at Ball Arena.