It’s a Christmas miracle, Cameron Johnson has not suffered a major injury after he went down in a heap of pain during the Denver Nuggets’ loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
Johnson, who will miss time, including tomorrow’s prime-time Christmas game, had an MRI on Wednesday. It revealed nothing more than a bone bruise in his right knee. ESPN reports that there is no structural damage.
Johnson is the last remaining healthy starter between Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the lineup. He bumped legs on a rebound and went down in a hurry. He slammed the floor, then limped off it with the help of trainers. He was listed as questionable to return with a right knee sprain, but he never did.
For the time being, it puts even pressure on Peyton Watson, who has just returned from an injury, but has been the team’s starter for a long time now with Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun’s injuries. Watson didn’t hit a shot Tuesday, but Jokic trusted him to win it — as the big man passed out of a heavily contested look with two seconds left for a wide-open Watson triple. His shot went all the way around and popped back out. Still, Watson has been pretty solid for Denver this season.
Along with Watson, this will keep Spencer Jones in the starting lineup — where he’s been since Thanksgiving. And one of Bruce Brown or Tim Hardaway will likely slide up into the first five. Also, look for former first-rounder Julian Strawther, who also just returned from injury, to get a bigger role. Jalen Pickett, who has played well recently, should also factor in.
Even with all these injuries, the Nuggets are 4.5-point favorites for their Christmas contest against the Wolves.
While it still stinks that Johnson is sidelined, based on how serious the injury looked on Tuesday, the news on Wednesday is a massive sigh of relief for everyone. On top of that, Johnson had finally really begun to mesh with his new team, having his finest game in Denver thus far on Monday. Now the guy swapped for Michael Porter Jr. will sit without a timeline (for now). Joining Braun, whose return could come in weeks, while Gordon seems to be at a slightly slower pace.
The Nuggets will have to just keep relying on their stars and fighting through the injury bug for now — it’s for sure caught up to them in recent games, with the team just lacking the horses given the amount of pain in their stable.
