The Nuggets just woke up from a nightmare this Friday morning, after last night’s 117-83 loss to the Clippers in Game 3 of the Western Conference playoff series. Another worry was added to the list, as Russell Westbrook fell to injury in Thursday’s second quarter, with a left foot inflammation.
The veteran guard is not the only Denver star who is out with a health issue, as Michael Porter Jr. played through a painful left shoulder injury and later said he wasn’t convinced he’d be healthy enough to play in Saturday’s Game 4.
As for Westbrook, he turned his left foot during the pregame warmup, but still decided to play through the pain until he had to exit the match while they were minutes away from the end of there first half.
In Porter Jr.’s case, he’s been hurting since the Nuggets lost to the Clippers near the end of Game 2 on Monday, when he injured his left, non-shooting shoulder as he dove for a ball. Sources say that he suffered a Grade 2 sprain and was unable to lift his arm for at least two days.
“They say it’s normally a four-, five-week injury,” Michael said, as he hopes to be ready for this weekend. “I mean, you use your shoulder for everything. It was tough to rebound. Tough to bring it up to shoot. It was probably like 20-30 percent. I couldn’t really use it.”
Denver now trail in the series 2-1. “If I can, I will,” he assured, as the contest is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. PT. “If it’s still in the place like it is today and I don’t feel like I can even bring any help to the team at all, then there’s no point in trying to go out there.”
Christian Braun, on the other hand, can’t wait to turn thing around. “I wish it was faster. I don’t want to think about this one anymore,” said the young forward. “We’ll be ready. We just got punched in the mouth and you have to respond. You can’t roll over. You can’t complain. Like I said, I wish the game was earlier. I wish we could respond earlier.”
