During Thursday night’s Nuggets game at Ball Arena against the Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray suffered a sprained right ankle. Murray was not on the bench to begin the second half with backup point guard Reggie Jackson taking his place.
After handing out an assist to Nikola Jokic, Murray seemed to stumble and land awkwardly on teammate Aaron Gordon’s foot underneath the basket. Murray stood up for a moment, but then returned to his seat on the baseline. Using his own strength, he got up off the floor, but with a noticeable limp.
In recent weeks, Murray has been afflicted by shin splints, which are formally classified as bilateral tibia inflammation. His season-long leg problems have caused him to miss 16 games, the most significant of which was a right hamstring strain in November. He missed a month of activity, but when he came back in early December, he sprained his right ankle, which kept him out of a few more games.
Murray averaged 20.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 6.4 assists in his first 43 games of 2023–24. He also shot 48% from the field and 42% from three points. Before playing on Thursday, the second game of a back-to-back, he had just defeated the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday with an incredible 32 points on 13 of 15 shots. The prior week, Denver gave Murray back-to-back second game off for cautionary reasons.