The Denver Nuggets have won three of their last four games after a long eight game losing streak and now sit at 9-14 on the season. Denver didn't come into this season with many expectations but any hopes they had have been zapped by injuries especially in the frontcourt. Now they have suffered an injury to their starting point guard, Emmanuel Mudiay, who might be looking at an extended absence, according of Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post.
Mudiay sprained his ankle in the Nuggets' last game against the Minnesota Timerwolves and was unable to play in the second half of that game. At that time the injury didn't seem all that serious as he was able to practice this past weekend but he tweaked the ankle injury and will miss Monday night's game against the Houston Rockets at the very least.
Mudiay says the injury is similar to the one he suffered when he was playing in China last season and he is confident he will be able to return without too much time passing.
"Kind of what happened in China, but not as bad as what happened in China, Better treatment here, and everything is going to go a lot faster. I jammed it a little bit. It wasn't really a roll. I didn't feel it roll. I just felt it jam. So that was really it," said Mudiay.
The fact that Mudiay compared this injury to the one he had in China isn't exactly a great sign considering the ankle injury last year caused him to miss about two months of game action and that led to him playing in just 10 regular season games and two playoff games all year. Mudiay though sounds optimistic and says the injury isn't as bad so that is a good sign but it is still hard to imagine him coming back too soon as he reportedly left the arena on Sunday in a walking boot.
Mudiay has started all 23 games for the Nuggets so far this season and is fourth on the team with 10.7 points per game and leads the team with 5.7 assists per game. Overall Mudiay has struggled to adjust to the NBA as a rookie as he is turning the ball over four times a game and his PER is a very low 6.8 but he is a big part of the Nuggets future and they are currently thin at point guard. Jameer Nelson will likely take over as the starter for however long Mudiay is out but he is also the only other true point guard on the roster so it might mean some time at the point for Randy Foye.
