SAN ANTONIO — Anyone looking for a swift return for two of the Nuggets’ top six rotation players will have to continue to be patient.
It could be another week before either of them are back.
Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay and starting small forward Danilo Gallinari both missed Saturday night’s game against San Antonio.
Both are out with ankle injuries. Mudiay missed his seventh consecutive game with a right ankle sprain that he suffered Dec. 11 against Minnesota. He has been out of a walking boot, though, and did some light shooting during the Nuggets’ shootaround Saturday morning.
Gallinari, meanwhile, looks nimble on his feet but remains out. He missed his third consecutive game after spraining his left ankle against New Orleans on Dec. 20.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone started talking about Mudiay’s status, then faded into a prediction on when both could return.
“Obviously we’re beginning a four in five (four games in five nights) right now,” Malone said. “A guy that’s missed as long as he has, I would not want to plug them in without having them go through a practice. So the odds of either one of those guys playing prior to, maybe, Golden State, in the new year, are probably slim-to-none, but you never know.”
Footnotes. Jameer Nelson (illness) returned to action Saturday, starting at point guard after missing the team’s last game against Phoenix. … The Nuggets had a team Christmas dinner on Friday night in San Antonio.
