History has repeated itself twice with Carmelo Anthony’s sprained ankle. The Nuggets hope it happens once more and he returns quickly to the lineup.
Last season, Anthony sprained his right ankle Nov. 27. He missed the following game, a home date against New Orleans. Then he was back in the lineup.
Anthony hurt his left ankle Monday, Nov. 28, against New Jersey. He will miss tonight’s date with the Hornets, too. But the Nuggets are hopeful that, like a year ago, that’s the only game he will miss despite his severe limp coming off the court after colliding with Nets center Nenad Krstic.
“I’m going to take a game off and then see how it feels from day to day after that, but it doesn’t feel that bad,” Anthony said Tuesday in a statement through his agent, Calvin Andrews.
A magnetic resonance imaging test confirmed Tuesday what X-rays suggested Monday, that Anthony has nothing more than a sprain. He had minimal swelling Tuesday and will wear a protective boot, but trainer Jim Gillen said the injury was unrelated to the sprains on both ankles the small forward suffered last season.
“He told me that it doesn’t compare to last year’s,” Gillen said.
Coach George Karl forecast Anthony might be back for Denver’s game Friday at Phoenix or its home date Saturday with Miami.
“It sounds very optimistic. I’m definitely relieved,” Karl said. “I know this is the first time he’s been injured with me, but Jim thinks he plays well with pain and heals well.”
Added forward Kenyon Martin: “I’m just happy it was just a sprain. He’s 21, so he has that on his side, too.”
In the meantime, the question becomes how to replace Anthony and his 20.3 scoring average at small forward.
“He’s the focal point of our offense,” guard Earl Boykins said. “Without him, I think George is going to have to be a little more creative in how we attack things.”
Karl mentioned rookie Linas Kleiza as a sleeper candidate to start against New Orleans/ Oklahoma City, but would not mention other names. “There’s a lot of stuff in that hat tomorrow. It could be an interesting starting lineup,” Karl said.
The Nuggets went with a heavy three point guard rotation of Andre Miller, Boykins and Earl Watson in their victory over the Hornets in Oklahoma City two weeks ago.
Karl said he might experiment more with a zone defense that he used rarely this season before trying it in the second half against New Jersey. He also predicted Martin and Miller might get more touches in the low post to compensate for Anthony’s absence there.
Anthony’s injury is just the latest for a team plagued by them. Forward Nene was hurt, likely out for the season, opening night with a knee injury. Martin has missed all or most of six games recovering from offseason knee surgery. Boykins (sprained right ankle) and forward Eduardo Najera (right knee bruise) are playing with pain. Both said Tuesday they feel fine.
But Karl said, “Najera probably shouldn’t be playing. He shouldn’t have played last night. And Earl, today was the first day I saw him walk without a limp, and that’s been a week or 10 days. That’s part of the process.
“Sometimes there’s an injury jinx on you a little bit. But in the end if you fight through it and persevere, you’re competitive because of it.”
While hardly happy about Anthony’s injury, Karl viewed the retooling ahead of him this week as a silver lining.
“That’s when you’ve got to coach more, innovate and create and shuffle and try to find,” he said. “I enjoy that.”
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
