FLASH SALE
Don’t miss this deal
Standard Digital Access
Already a subscriber?
Jamal Murray sprained his right ankle during the second quarter of the Nuggets’ win over the Miami Heat on Thursday night at Ball Arena.
He didn’t return to the game as Reggie Jackson replaced him at starting point guard in the second half. The Nuggets won 103-97 to advance their win streak to five since the All-Star break.
Murray appeared to land awkwardly on teammate Aaron Gordon’s foot under the basket after dishing an assist to Nikola Jokic. Murray initially got to his feet, but then sat back down on the baseline. He walked off the floor under his own power, but with a heavy limp.
“I talked to him right at the half, and he thought he was gonna be able to try to maybe give it a go — see how it warmed up,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, not ruling out Murray’s availability Saturday at the Lakers. “And it just wasn’t responding the way he had hoped, so I think it was a smart decision not to have him out there. Just trying to be as careful as possible at this point of the season.”
Murray has been dealing with shin splints, categorized officially as bilateral tibia inflammation, in recent weeks. He has missed 16 games due to various leg injuries this season, most notably a right hamstring strain in November. After missing a month of action, he returned and promptly sprained his right ankle in early December, causing him to miss a couple more games.
In his first 43 games of 2023-24, Murray averaged 20.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists on 48% shooting from the floor and a 42% clip from 3-point range. Entering Thursday’s game — the second of a back-to-back — he was coming off an outstanding 32-point performance on 13-of-15 shooting Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings. In a back-to-back the previous week, Denver gave Murray the second game off for cautionary reasons associated with the shin splints, but this time he wasn’t even mentioned on Thursday’s injury report.
The Nuggets (41-19) intend to stick to the cautionary philosophy in upcoming games if necessary.
“All tomorrow is going to be is meet at the plane, fly to L.A. and get ready for the Lakers. He’ll come in. All the other guys will come in and get some kind of treatments, some player development prior to the flight. … If there’s any hesitancy, then he won’t play in L.A. If the ankle’s not right. … The question is never, ‘Can I go play?’ No, can you play effectively? Because if you’re not playing effectively, you’re putting everybody else at a disadvantage. So we’ll see. And if he’s not able to play against the Lakers because of the ankle injury, then we’ll hopefully get him back for Phoenix (next Tuesday).”
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.
View more on
The Denver Post
