MIAMI — The injuries keep on coming for an already beat-up Nuggets team.
Nuggets center Joffrey Lauvergne holds a towel to his face after being hit in the face during the second half of the team’s game against Washington on Saturday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
This time, the two players in question are both big men, centers Jusuf Nurkic and Joffrey Lauvergne. Nuggets coach Michael Malone called the pair game-time decisions for Monday night’s game at Miami.
“Right now I’m a little worried about our injuries,” said Malone after Nuggets shootaround. “Can Joffrey play tonight with his face? Can Nurkic play with his knee? We could be a depleted team tonight, but that’s been the case all year and I’m sure other guys will step up.”
Lauvergne did not participate in shootaround. He was getting fitted for a mask to protect a badly bruised cheekbone, an injury he suffered in the Nuggets’ win over Washington on Saturday. Meanwhile, Nurkic only went through “parts of” shootaround, Malone said. Nurkic is coming off of one of his best games of the season, 17 points, four rebounds and two blocks against the Wizards.
“So we could have a lot of small ball tonight, potentially,” Malone said.
Miami likes to play small ball but they can get big and intimidating real fast with center Hassan Whiteside, who leads in the NBA in blocked shots with 222 total — 77 more than second-place DeAndre Jordan. It’s an average of 3.89 per game, and the Nuggets are very familiar with his impact as a rim protector. Whiteside had 11 blocks, part of a triple-double, in a Heat win over the Nuggets back on Jan. 15 in Denver.
“He’s just an unbelievable rim protector,” Malone said. “We can’t go in there and try to finger-roll it. We’ve talked about it. We have to do a better job of recognizing him at the rim, and more importantly moving on penetration and giving our guys outlets.”
Miami is coming off a 1-2 road trip, but is 9-4 since the All-Star break and is playing without star forward Chris Bosh, who is out with an undisclosed medical issue.
“Three guys have stepped up and improved to make up for the difference,” Malone said. “That’s (Goran) Dragic, who is averaging 18 points per game since Bosh has been out; Luol Deng, who has bumped his average up to 18 since Bosh has been out; and then Whiteside.”
The Nuggets enter the game on a season-high four-game winning streak and are 3-3 in their last six road games.
“They’ve been playing well,” said Malone of the Heat. “Been battling some injuries but they’re a tough team. They’re good defensively, they don’t beat themselves. We have to do a better job tonight than we did at home when we blew a big lead and lost that game, which was one of many regrettable home losses.”
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
