NBA

NBA Swing: Injury Updates on Murray, Porter, and Simmons

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Jamal Murray Assigned to G-League; Porter Return Expected Soon

Reports came out earlier this week that Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray was being assigned to the Grand Rapids Gold, the Nuggets’ NBA G-League affiliate. Additional reports came out Wednesday afternoon noting that Murray had a positive practice and will continue to practice with the team. It was not a full-court practice, but it is a step in the right direction. It has been almost a year since Murray last played. He tore his ACL in Mid-April in a game against the Golden State Warriors. In the 48 games he played last season, he averaged splits of 21.2 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 4.8 APG. While there is no telling if Murray will return by the end of the season, this is good news for a team that has missed two of its three key players for the majority of the season. In addition to Murray, forward Michael Porter Jr. is expected to return soon. Dealing with ongoing back issues for years, Porter hasn’t played since early November, only playing seven minutes. In the few games he’s played this season, Porter has averaged 9.9 PPG, 6.6 RPG, and 1.8 APG. Porter has been cleared for well over a week now, and rumors say he could return as soon as next week. The returns of Murray or Porter would be a tremendous help to the Nuggets who currently sit in the sixth seed of the West. While they are only two games out of the fourth seed (at the time of this writing), there are still four weeks left in the NBA season and plenty of time for the team to climb or fall in the standings. 

 

Ben Simmons’ Epidural Injection 

It was reported in the last 48 hours that Ben Simmons received an epidural injection to relieve back pain. It has been noted that the L-4 disc of the lower spine has been irritated, preventing him to return to the court. Nets head coach Steve Nash said he is hopeful that Simmons could play a couple of games at the end of the season. Simmons hasn’t played since last year’s playoffs with the Philadelphia 76ers. With there being no true timetable for Simmons’s return, this is not good for Brooklyn. Nets teammate Kyrie Irving only has a few more road games to play this season as he is still not allowed to play at home due to New York’s mask/vaccination mandate. Having both Simmons and Kyrie out for the majority of the remaining games, there is no telling where the Nets will end up in the standings at the end of the season. The team currently sits in eighth in the East and would be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today. It is possible the Nets could move out of the play-in if they went on a streak, but without a healthy Simmons and 100% available Irving, it would be very hard for Durant to get the Nets out of the first round of the playoffs. 

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