Nuggets without key big man Friday night versus Rockets

DENVER — Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic has been ruled out of the Nuggets’ Friday night matchup with the Houston Rockets after being diagnosed with a left wrist sprain.

“When you lose a player like Nikola Jokic it’s a big loss. We played through him a lot his last two games. He’s got back-to-back double-doubles and not many guys can replicate what he brings to the table,” Michael Malone said prior to tipoff against the Rockets. “That being said, we have depth. We have other bigs like Darrell Arthur that come in and play and we’ll also play a lot of smallball.”

“Right now, they are listing it as a day-to-day injury,” Malone continued. “As the swelling goes out of it, he came in yesterday, couldn’t move it and same thing for today. So we’ll see how it looks moving forward but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s not a long-term injury because he is a big part of what we’re trying to do and who we’re trying to be.”

Jokic was injured in the third quarter of the Nuggets 106-98 loss to the Miami Heat Wednesday night.

Jokic finished the game but popped up on Denver’s injury report Thursday and was ruled out Friday night prior to tipoff.

The 21-year-old had been coming on as of late and recorded two straight double-doubles; a 13-points, 11-rebound performance in Denver’s 120-114 in Phoenix and a 17-point, 14-rebound effort in the Nuggets’ loss to Miami.

Expect more Jusuf Nurkic and increased minutes for Kenneth Faried at the five in Jokic’s absence.