PORTLAND — After clinching a sixth consecutive playoff berth with a thrilling double-overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets, the Portland Trail Blazers’ postgame locker room was supposed to be lively and jubilant.

Instead, it was silent.

Fourteen solemn players and several stunned coaches congregated Monday night for a moment of silence and a collective prayer, the only way they could cope after watching Jusuf Nurkic crash to the Moda Center court and suffer a gruesome leg injury that will force him to miss the rest of the season.

“Devastating,” head coach Terry Stotts said.

“It made me sick to my stomach,” All-Star guard Damian Lillard added.

The Blazers’ starting center suffered compound fractures to his left tibia and fibula with 2:22 left in the second overtime, when he jumped for a rebound and crashed down in a cluster of bodies near the Blazers’ basket. The awkward landing caused such a grisly injury, Nets players instantly pivoted and ran away from Nurkic the moment they saw it while many teammates had to look away.

After an extensive evaluation by team trainers and doctors — during which players from both teams gathered nearby — Nurkic was lifted onto a stretcher with the help of teammates and taken to a Portland-area hospital. The team announced Tuesday that Nurkic underwent surgery and that he is expected to make a complete recovery.

The Blazers went on to beat the Nets 148-144 in an entertaining back-and-forth track meet, securing the 35th playoff berth in franchise history. But, afterward, that was merely a footnote as Blazers players and coaches tried to process what they had seen.

“It’s terrible,” said Zach Collins, a second-year NBA center and, like Nurkic, a 7-footer. “Obviously you never want to see that happen, especially with your own teammate that you go to war with every night. Nurk, he’s been having a hell of a season. He had an amazing game tonight. And for it to end like that for him, it’s just tough. All we can do is be there for him and hope he’s in as little pain as possible and knows that we’ve got his back.”

For a franchise that has endured serious injuries to numerous centers over the years — ranging from Bill Walton’s feet to Sam Bowie’s legs to Greg Oden’s knees — it was a surreal scene to see Nurkic splayed on the Moda Center court.

His injury happened on the opposite side of the court from where, nearly 10 years ago, Oden fractured the patella in his left knee to essentially end his career.

As medical personnel tended to Nurkic, the sellout crowd spontaneously broke out into a chant, repeatedly shouting “Ju-suf Nur-kic!”

“It happened right in front of me,” the Blazers’ Moe Harkless said. “It was kind of (messed) up. It didn’t look good. I can’t explain it. I was just, like, terrified seeing that. I guess that would be the best way to describe it.”

Nurkic, who has developed into a consistent and lethal interior force during his fifth NBA season, is having a career year. He is averaging 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists — all career highs — along with 1.4 blocks, and is the anchor of the Blazers’ defense. Nurkic signed a four-year, $48 million contract with the Blazers last summer, cementing his status as one of the team’s “Big Three” that also includes guards Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

The Blazers signed Enes Kanter just before the All-Star break and also have Collins and Meyers Leonard, so they have plenty of reinforcements at center. But Nurkic, who had bulldozed Brooklyn with 32 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and four blocks before his injury, is a vital part of what Portland does at both ends of the floor and his presence cannot be replaced. Losing Nurkic for the rest of the season, quite simply, is a crushing blow for a team that has aspirations for a deep playoff run.

But the Blazers (46-27), who are currently percentage points ahead of the Houston Rockets for third place in the Western Conference standings, had a hard time Monday focusing on any of that. As they revealed their emotions and relived a teammate’s injury in a solemn and despondent locker room, they could focus only on Nurkic and his well-being.

“I’m going to go home and pray for him because this is way bigger than basketball,” Kanter said. “We clinched a playoff spot and we’re not even celebrating. He was a big part of our family — not our team, our family — and I just don’t know what to say. It’s definitely tough.”

For Lillard, who has grown close with Nurkic over the years, the moment was “beyond bittersweet.” Lillard said the two talk, text and Facetime daily. Nurkic attended the first birthday party of Lillard’s 1-year-old son, Damian Jr., and had grown so tight with Lillard and his family that he was known to randomly stop by Lillard’s house for an impromptu visit.

“This is all fragile,” Lillard said. “Everything about it is, other than the friendships that you have. Every little thing about the game and about the NBA season and the NBA career is fragile. (You are) on the team one day, gone the next. You can be healthy one day, injured the next. You have a job one day, fired the next.

“That’s my little big brother. The other day after practice, Nurk just came to my house to see my son. No reason at all … he wanted to come by and see the baby. I think that says what our relationship is. It’s unfortunate.”