The Denver Nuggets were supposed to prove this season that a superstar is not needed to find great team success in the postseason. They were supposed to do it with chemistry and depth, but both of those things may have taken a huge hit on Thursday, when Danilo Gallinari suffered what appeared to be a devastating knee injury while driving to the basket against the Dallas Mavericks:
We don’t have final word on the situation, but Adrian Wojnarowski reported that it is likely the worst-case scenario for the valuable starting forward:
At the very least, it is a serious knee injury that will likely sideline him for the foreseeable future. For a team that is gearing for the playoffs, this is absolutely devastating. Denver was already playing without point guard Ty Lawson, who is slated to miss at least the next couple of weeks due to a bruised right heel. The team has enough depth at the wing position to compensate for the loss, but they are clearly a much better team when Gallinari is on the floor. We can cross our fingers for the absolute best news, but it just doesn’t look very promising, given how he hurt himself and what initial tests are saying.
It was just two weeks ago when the Nuggets ripped through the competition for 15 consecutive victories and looked about as good as any team in the league. Now, they have no choice but to limp into postseason action, which is coming up in two weeks.
Onto other news from around the league: