Michael Malone on Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari, "He's going to be out for a while"

Denver Nuggets small forward Danilo Gallinari underwent an X-Ray and MRI on his right ankle after spraining it against the Dallas Mavericks on Feb 26. The results are going to keep him sidelined for a while according to head coach Michael Malone.

Malone on Gallo: “He’s going to be out for a while. He compared it to his sprain earlier in the year and he said it was worse.”

— Harrison Wind (@NBAWind) February 28, 2016

Malone: “we’re going to prepare moving forward without Gallo for the time being.”

— Harrison Wind (@NBAWind) February 28, 2016

The injury Malone is referring to above took place back on Dec. 20 and kept Gallo out of the lineup for six games. Apparently, Gallinari told Davide Chinellato of La Gazzetta the injury will sideline him for 3-4 weeks, but that’s not official.

.@nuggets Danilo Gallinari told me he expects to remain out 3-4 weeks for his right ankle injury #NBA

— Davide Chinellato (@dchinellato) February 28, 2016

The Nuggets have just 23 games remaining on their schedule.

Nurkic practicing again

Malone said Nurkic is a full participant in practice & had one of his better ones today.

— Harrison Wind (@NBAWind) February 28, 2016

Malone wouldn’t say definitively but I bet we see Nurkic on the floor during this 7-game homestand.

— Harrison Wind (@NBAWind) February 28, 2016

Since the All Star break, Nurkic has only appeared in two of Denver’s five games and played a grand total of 26 minutes against the Kings (14 minutes) and Celtics (12 minutes). Nurkic has only played in 19 games this season and is averaging just 13.7 minutes in a disappointing sophomore season. It has been a long road back from his patella tendon surgery that he underwent back in May of 2015.