Remember Rudy Fernandez? The Nuggets guard hasn’t played since Feb. 17 because of a lower-back strain — and he didn’t play Friday against the Hornets, the 10th consecutive game he’s missed. But he’s close to returning.
“With the new treatment, I’m feeling better,” Fernandez said Friday. “For sure, I go day by day, but the last couple of days I’m feeling better. Saturday, I think I’ll start to practice, so that’s good news. I miss basketball.
“Today, I started to run a little bit. Saturday, I’ll play basketball with a little contact. So maybe I’m close to coming back to play.”
The 26-year-old said he “didn’t expect this thing to be long, at first,” but he did have back issues in the past with Portland.
Meanwhile, forward Danilo Gallinari has returned to the rotation — Friday was his third game back from his ankle injury. But Gallinari said after Friday’s shootaround: “I don’t feel 100 percent yet. It’s going to be like that for a while. Hopefully, I will get there very soon.”
Denver big men Timofey Mozgov (ankle) and Kosta Koufos (knee soreness) did not play against New Orleans and are day to day.
Back in the day. The Nuggets wore ABA uniforms Friday — white with the classic pickax logo — which sparked nostalgia for Denver coach George Karl, who played in the ABA.
“I love it. It reminds me of Larry Brown with his long hair and crazy sweaters, Doug Moe in bell-bottoms and the Baseline Bums throwing beer at him.
“The player I always had problems with was Warren Jabali — I think I took four charges from him and three times he tried to step on my head.”
They said it. Karl was asked if part of Kenneth Faried’s popularity with fans was because of social media.
“I’m an expert of social media,” Karl said sarcastically. “I can’t even spell Twitter or find it. I can return e-mails, though. It took me two years, though.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
