MPJ, Westbrook fighting injuries as Nuggets’ backs are against the wall

The Denver Nuggets had a very poor showing in Game 3 against the Los Angeles Clippers Thursday night, a 117-83 trouncing in the first playoff game ever played at the Intuit Dome. While the Nuggets showed no signs of life as the game went on, they were playing without two of their top six rotation players in Michael Porter Jr. and Russell Westbrook.

Michael Porter Jr said his left shoulder injury is normally a 4-5 week injury. He said it was like 20-30 percent today. He’ll try to play Saturday but wants to make sure he’s actually helping the team. He felt very limited today. Source told ESPN that Porter Jr had a Grade 2…

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) April 25, 2025

Nuggets just confirmed it’s a foot injury. https://t.co/phYU0QDijl

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) April 25, 2025

MPJ came into Thursday’s contest listed as questionable after he suffered the shoulder sprain late in Game 2 when diving for a ball that he turned over. He was in an excruciating amount of pain after the loss, but ended up giving it a go after having two days off to rest the shoulder as much as possible. Porter shot just 2-for-9 on the night and was a -25 in the 35 minutes he played.

Westbrook, on the other hand, came into the night healthy, but appeared to tweak his left ankle/foot in pregame warmups. He too gave it a go, but was only able to give nine minutes of work before the pain, officially listed as foot inflammation, was too much. He shot 1-for-5 and was a -16.

The NBA Playoffs are all about who the healthier team is. That showed in 2022 when the Golden State Warriors played a handful of depleted teams in the Western Conference en route to winning the title.

MPJ and Westbrook were two of the healthiest players for the Nuggets all season long, playing 77 and 75 games in the regular season, respectively. Christian Braun (79 games played) was the only Nugget who played more than these two.

The news is frustrating for Nuggets fans and the whole organization, as Denver fought the injury plague all season long before starting the playoffs with everyone in the rotation being healthy. Just three games in, the script has been reversed, and now the Nuggets are just two games away from getting started on one of the most important offseason in the Nikola Jokic era.

For Porter, he said that was playing because he couldn’t hurt the shoulder any more unless he re-sprained it. With it not being his shooting shoulder, he decided to give it a go in Game 3. While the Nuggets haven’t released the injury report, Westbrook’s status is up in the air for Game 4 as well, and it will all depend on how much he can control the inflammation in the next 24 hours.

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