Denver Nuggets: Injury Bug Always Strikes At Worst Time
It was Apr. 4, 2013. The Denver Nuggets just beat Dallas 95-94 to win their 19th straight home victory, Andre Iguodala came through for the team by hitting a game-winning layup with 2.8 seconds left on the clock. and the Nuggets were HOT; they appeared to be a serious contender heading into the Western Conference playoffs.
Despite all that, the headlines across the blogosphere all still read “Nuggets lose Gallinari,” and while Gallo’s ACL tear was devastating at the time, little did we know how big the theme of “misfortune hitting Gallinari’s knees” would become for the Nuggets.
This time it’s a torn meniscus, immediately following his best game since returning from the torn ACL surgery “re-do” that kept him sidelined for the entire season last year. Gallanari scored a game-high 19 points while shooting 58.3 percent from the floor, and helped the Nuggets seal a 76-73 victory over the Indiana Pacers. The timetable for return is set to three-to-four weeks according to the Denver Post’s Christopher Dempsey.
Gallo is expected to have surgery in the next day or two, and there is a tentative timetable now; out three weeks. #Nuggets
— Chris Dempsey (@chrisadempsey) December 21, 2014
Damn. This is bad news no matter how you look at it. Gallo hasn’t looked like the same player he was before this season, but the Nuggets could still use his production with Wilson Chandler cooling off a little bit. Plus, Gallo is the latest on a growing injury report that giving me bad flashbacks to last season:
JaVale McGee – out – leg strain (This injury still? Shaw told the Denver Post that he’s expected to miss “significant” time? Ugh.)
Randy Foye – out – quad (Foye led the team in three-point shooting last year, and this hurts a little in the leadership department too. Ugh.)
Darrell Arthur – day-to-day (should be back soon, the Nuggets need his shooting)
Nate Robinson – day-to-day (looks like this is generally past us though, he’ll have to miss a couple games throughout the season due to recovery of his knee issues).
Why, oh why do the NBA injury gods like to mess with the Nuggets so much? Gallanari’s injury comes at a rough time too. It halts the momentum the Nuggets were finally starting to build after winning two straight.
Indiana was the second three-point win in two nights after the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 109-106 on Friday. That win ended a stretch where the Nuggets lost four of five games, but showed a lot of potential in hanging at Toronto (112-107 in OT), vs. Houston (115-111 in OT), and vs. San Antonio (99-91 on a second leg of a back-to-back).
Ugh. Not to mention that in the next five teams the Nuggets play a team that is over .500 only once, a Toronto rematch in Denver. Given their two-game win streak, this stretch appeared to be the first good chance the Nuggets have to get themselves back into the playoff race. With a 12-15 record, the Nuggets currently trail Phoenix by a game and a half for the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
Gallo’s bad luck seems to always strike at the worst time. Luckily he’s not out for the season, and hopefully the Nuggets can use their depth to pull closer to the eighth spot over the next five games. That Alonzo Gee signing this past offseason will get its first real test now, and fingers crossed this FINALLY means the end of the poor injury luck for the Nuggets and Gallinari.