DENVER (AP) 鈥� Jamal Murray missed his fifth consecutive game for the Denver Nuggets on Sunday with a strained right hamstring and coach Michael Malone said 鈥渉opefully鈥� his star point guard will be back for the start of the NBA playoffs.
Malone said that keeping Murray on the bench with four games to go in the regular season wasn鈥檛 a matter of precaution: 鈥淛amal鈥檚 hurt. It鈥檚 not (being) careful. He鈥檚 hurt.鈥�
鈥淭his has been a weird one,鈥� Malone added. 鈥淚t was day-to-day, day-to-day. The next thing you know it鈥檚 not day-to-day. So, obviously a big loss for us. But we have more than enough. We鈥檝e shown that time and time again in that locker room. So, if Jamal is unable to go, we need other guys to step up and and play desperate and play urgent.鈥�
Asked before tip-off against Indiana on Sunday if he expects Murray to be back in action by the playoffs, Malone said, 鈥渉opefully he's able to be back by then.鈥�
The Nuggets entered Sunday on a three-game skid and in a fourth place in the bunched-up Western Conference, just a game ahead of the eighth-place Memphis Grizzlies.
Murray dealt with a sprained ankle down the stretch a year ago and played poorly in a second-round playoff series against Minnesota and again for Canada in the Paris Olympics.
The Pacers were without star forward Pascal Siakam (right elbow) in Denver.
Siakam's injury exacerbated the Pacers' challenge in facing Nikola Jokic, who's on the verge of becoming the first player in league history to finish top-three in scoring, rebounds and assists in the same season.
鈥淚t's a monumental task,鈥� Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. 鈥淚f you think about it, he's really playing every position on the floor. He's handling the ball a lot of the time. He plays the five. I mean, he really does the things that every position on the floor does. He shoots it, he rebounds, he drives like wings. He does things that (forwards) do. It's another historic year for him and we've had a lot of problems with him.鈥�
Malone also addressed sticking with Russell Westbrook, who had two big blunders in the closing seconds of a last week.
鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be where we are right now, in fourth place with four games to go, if it wasn鈥檛 for Russell this year,鈥� Malone said. 鈥淎nd I think it鈥檚 easy to look at with the recency bias: 鈥榃ell, he missed a layup, he fouled a guy against Minnesota,鈥� and everybody just kind of wants to detach from him. ... I don鈥檛 do that.
鈥淚 respect Russell Westbrook and I鈥漨 also appreciative of everything he鈥檚 done for this team this year on the court and off the court,鈥� Malone said. 鈥淎nd with Jamal out, we need Russell Wesbrook. We need him to come into the game, provide a spark, bring energy 鈥� and our turnovers aren鈥檛 just Russ. ... It is a team-wide issue right now.
鈥淏ut Russ has been around the block. He knows what big games are about and we鈥檙e playing a lot of guys right now that have no idea what big games are about. So, having a veteran that鈥檚 been there and done that ... can reassure some of those guys.鈥�
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AP NBA:
Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press
