{"id":135735,"date":"2025-04-22T10:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T14:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135735"},"modified":"2025-04-22T10:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T14:43:20","slug":"nuggets-michael-porter-jr-shoulder-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/22\/nuggets-michael-porter-jr-shoulder-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Porter Jr. Sustains Shoulder Injury in Nuggets Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Nuggets dropped Game 2 of their first-round <\/span>playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Monday night. The series is now equaled at one apiece as both teams head to California for two more tilts. It was a sloppy game for the Nuggets. They were lackadaisical on defense at times and far too casual with the basketball offensively, which led to a close but eventual defeat. It was a game also that included a shoulder injury for Nuggets forward\u00a0<\/span>Michael Porter Jr.<\/span><\/a> Porter was coming off of Game 1, where his impact was essentially non-existent and not up to par with what Nuggets fans have seen from him in past postseason performances. While Game 2 was a bounce-back moment for Porter, it didn’t come without its speed bumps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. Sustains Shoulder Injury in Game 2<\/h2>\n

Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. bounced back in game 2 while dealing with shoulder injury<\/h3>\n

After a 3-point, 1-4 shooting night in\u00a0<\/span>game 1 over the weekend<\/span><\/a>, Porter returned in Game 2 with a double-double: 15 points and 15 rebounds, shooting 6-11 from the field\u2014a much better outing than Saturday’s. Porter went 50% from three and was also a presence on the defensive end. Who knows the intentions of <\/span>Nikola Joki\u0107’s<\/span><\/a>\u00a0cryptic post-game remarks on Saturday<\/a>\u2014many believe Porter to be the target. Regardless, Porter showed up but also fumbled a key moment late in the game with the score tied at 100. He turned the ball over, injuring his shoulder in the process. The Clippers regained the ball and took advantage of the Porter-less defense with a three-pointer.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to reporters after the game, Porter said the injury wasn’t too serious. Whether he will be available for Game 3 in two days remains to be seen. According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, despite the injury and positive production, Porter was more focused on his turnover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it was on me with that turnover. <\/em>I thought I had someone streaking down (the floor). I was trying to advance it up. But I saw that I didn\u2019t (have someone looking for the pass), so then I ended up turning it over. Just felt like that was the biggest turnover of the game. \u2026 I just had to tell my guys, \u201cMy fault, that was my mistake.’\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Porter also addressed his shoulder, not shying away from the discomfort he felt in the moment, “…Someone landed on my shoulder. \u2026 I\u2019ve never experienced a pain like this in my shoulder area. I\u2019ve had rolled ankles, so I know what I can play through with that. I\u2019ve never had this. Luckily, it\u2019s on my left side, not my right side, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Game 3 potentially without MPJ<\/h3>\n

Porter states that his shoulder injury isn’t too serious. That could change, though, over the next 24-48 hours. Sourness could pop up, or the discomfort could increase. If that’s the case, Porter may not be available on Thursday. Denver can ill-afford injuries, as this series with the Clippers will not be easy, and is very well on the trajectory of going seven games.<\/p>\n

If Porter can’t go for Game 3, it likely opens the door for <\/span>Peyton Watson<\/span><\/a>. He would slide into the starting lineup and get more minutes. Watson has played only 14 minutes in each of the first two games. He hasn’t had much of an impact, but that could change depending on Porter’s situation. Whether it’s him or\u00a0<\/span>Russell Westbrook<\/span><\/a>, whoever covers for Porter will need to step up in a crucial Game 3 matchup.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Denver Nuggets dropped Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers\u00a0Monday night. The series is now equaled at one apiece as both teams head to California for two more tilts. It was a sloppy game for the Nuggets. They were lackadaisical on defense at times and far too casual with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":135736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,20,62],"tags":[1223,72,48957,53],"class_list":["post-135735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-nba","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-peyton-watson","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135750,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135735\/revisions\/135750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}