Shootaround Notes: Malone on defending the Traiblazers' backcourt, updates on Gary Harris, Darrell Arthur

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DENVER, Colo. — As the Denver Nuggets prepare to take on the Portland Trailblazers tonight, October 29th, a day that will now be known as Dikembe Mutombo day in Colorado, head coach Michael Malone discussed the Nuggets plan on defending Portland’s explosive backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum and also gave an update on the statuses of Gary Harris and Darrell Arthur.

One of the main keys against the Trailblazers is how Denver defends the 3-point line. Portland will be looking to feast from beyond the arc against a Nuggets team that is known to struggle when defending the perimeter.

“A big part of it will be can we defend the 3-point line? These guys are more then capable of hitting pull up threes in transition, off pick-and-rolls, they hit a ton of step ups, its a lot of flair screens,” Malone said at shootaround Saturday morning. “So we have to have great communication. We have to be into them though. If they don’t feel us tonight they’ll get whatever they want. They’ll be shooting into a hula hoop by the end of the game. So we have to make sure were into them early, over everything, and big guys provide as much help as possible.”

Harris out, Arthur questionable

Harris’s partially torn right groin will officially keep him out of the Nuggets home opener.

“Gary Harris is out. It was good to see him on the floor yesterday, but, as always with these things, it’s how does he feel the next day,” Malone said. “He’s just not there yet. So he’s still out for the time being.”

Not exactly the best news for Harris but he is still on schedule to come back on his original timeline of four to six weeks. Arthur’s status after rehabbing from a knee scope on his right knee that he had performed leading up to training camp is looking brighter.

“Darrell Arthur went though shootaround, today which is great. He could potentially could be available tonight. He might not be thrown out there. We’ll see,” Malone said. “Darrell is still questionable, or probable, to this point.”

Malone’s comments come a day after Arthur said at practice that he was not going to play Saturday night.

Malone already has to juggle Nikola Jokic, Jusuf Nurkic, Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler in the frontcourt and Arthur’s return signals a possible change in the rotation that will be on Malone’s mind leading up to tipoff.