An hour before tipoff, Nuggets coach George Karl nervously lumbered into the locker room, scrounging for hope. He came up to Linas Kleiza, his hobbled reserve, and asked, “You ready?”
Kleiza’s yes was emphatic.
And sure enough, there was Kleiza on the court in the first quarter, trudging through pain in his left ankle in an important game against conference rival Phoenix.
Kleiza suffered the ankle sprain Feb. 19 against Boston, shot an 0-fer in the next game and sat out the following contest. Kleiza then looked to be back in the groove with outpours of eight and 15 points, but he was visibly struggling this past week, making just two field goals in the past two games, heading into Wednesday against Phoenix.
“I’ve been worried about L.K.,” Karl said. “I think his ankle is bothering him more than he’s saying. I think shooters are bothered by ankles more than most guys, such as guys around the basket. When you’re trying to make 25-foot shots, your lift, you’re feeling it all the way up your body, and I think sometimes you overcompensate. And he’s our best runner. But I think he’s running fine. It’s the shooting — he air-balled an 18-footer the other night. I was like, ‘Whoa.’ ”
