GETTING HEALTHY IS TOP PRIORITY

PORTLAND, ORE. » The Nuggets rode the wave as long as they could, mixing and matching and patching and cajoling. Another night, another lineup. Another “step up” player to lean on. All while facing the NBA’s top teams.

Inevitably, there were going to be diminishing returns.

The Nuggets are at that point, losing all four games in a fivenight swing. No Danilo Gallinari, no Emmanuel Mudiay, no Jusuf Nurkic and no Wilson Chandler, who is out for the season. On any given night there has been no Jameer Nelson, no Darrell Arthur, no Gary Harris and no Joffrey Lauvergne.

“I think our biggest thing right now is needing to get healthy,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.“We have guys who are starting who are not starters for us, andwe have guys who are playing heavy minutes that maybe when we’re healthy may not play that many minutes. And it’s been a very tough go, four games in five nights against some very tough teams.”

The Nuggets will take everyone else being available at this point — and even without Chandler that’s not been the case for a single night this season. Kostas Papanikolaou has played hard and at times played well as the starting small forward in Gallinari’s absence but he’s not a starting/ big minutes player.

Nelson played 40 minutes in a 110- 103 loss at Portland on Wednesday night. The Nuggets would rather not push him that much.

He has averaged 35.7minutes in his past three games.

Despite the fact that the Nuggets have averaged 100.7 points in their past three games, there has been a lack of firepower to a degree. It’s been a roll of the dice to figure out where scoring is coming from outside of Will Barton.

“It’s going to help just to have, especially, a guy like Gallo,” guard Randy Foye said. “You can just give him the ball, give him space and allow him to get to the freethrow line.”

In the six games without Gallinari, the Nuggets are averaging just 13.8 free- throw attempts per game.

With Gallinari, the Nuggets average 23.6 attempts per game.

Gallinari has missed six consecutive games because of an ankle injury but is targeting a return Saturday at Golden State.

The Nuggets also might get the season debut of center Jusuf Nurkic on that night. He has missed the entire season doing rehab on his knee.

“If we can get Gallinari back, if there’s a way to get Nurkic back, that’s always a positive to try to be as whole as possible,” Malone said.