Jusuf Nurkic's broken leg could give Denver new life in playoff race

Portland Trail Blazers’ starting center Jusuf Nurkic has been diagnosed with a non-displaced fibular fracture in his right leg and will miss the next two weeks. Nurkic will then be reevaluated, the team announced.

The news of Nurkic’s injury came down during Charlotte’s 122-114 win over the Denver Nuggets Friday night, a game, especially with Nurkic now expected to miss the remainder of the regular season, Denver had to have.

Nurkic appeared to injure his leg in the third quarter of Portland’s 117-107 win over Houston on Thursday.

Nurkic, who’s averaging 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds for Portland, who acquired the Bosnian from Denver in early February, has been instrumental behind the Trail Blazers’ second-half surge that’s seen Portland go 14-5 down the stretch of the regular season, posting the third-best offense and ninth-best defense since the All-Star break.

Portland had struggled over the first half of the season defensively but with Nurkic, they’ve been borderline elite with him on the floor. The Trail Blazers are only allowing opponents to score 103.7 points per 100 possessions when Nurkic plays, a mark that would slot them fourth in the league in defensive efficiency on the season, but without Nurkic, Portland allows a whopping 113.4 points per 100, which would be the league’s worst defense this year.

With Nurkic sidelined for the rest of the regular season, Portland’s defense is in danger of dropping off from the spike in efficiency they endured post-All-Star break. Behind Nurkic, who was acquired from the Nuggets for then-starting center Mason Plumlee, the Trail Blazers will have to turn to backup center Meyers Leonard, who’s more of an offensive specialist.

Behind Leonard, Portland’s frontcourt is depleted. Ed Davis will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in early March and free agent signee Festus Ezeli had ankle surgery in March, also ending his season.

Nurkic could return for the playoffs as long as he’s “fully functional and pain-free,” according to The Vertical.

With only seven games remaining and trailing Portland by essentially three games factoring in tiebreakers, the Nuggets can’t afford many more losses. Friday against Charlotte, in a game that Denver led by double-digits with under a minute left in the third quarter, was a matchup the Nuggets should have won.

The Trail Blazers have seven games remaining, five of which are at home and four that come against non-playoff teams. The Nuggets, however, have three games left on their road trip that takes them now to Miami, then New Orleans and Houston.

Denver then hosts the Pelicans and Thunder before ending their season on a back-to-back in Dallas and Oklahoma City. If the Nuggets are to complete what would be a miraculous end-of-season close on Portland, they might have to do so without Jameer Nelson, possibly for a game or two after Denver’s starting point guard left Friday night’s loss to Charlotte in the third quarter with a right calf strain and did not return.