ARTHUR TWEAKS KNEE

Forward sits out final exhibition

Nuggets forward Darrell Arthur felt a slight tweak in his left knee during Thursday’s practice, and that was enough to have him sit out Friday night’s exhibition game against Dallas at the Pepsi Center.

He is hopeful he will be available for Wednesday’s regularseason opener at New Orleans.

Arthur had been participating in the bulk of practice for the first time all month when he felt the twinge.

“It felt pretty good up until we did five-on-five transition, and I felt a little bit of discomfort, so I got pulled from practice,” Arthur said. “I’ll see how it goes at practice on Sunday. I felt really good up until that point. Progress is going pretty good, so hopefully we can stay on top of this thing and I’ll be ready for the season opener.”

The Nuggets cruised to an easy 101-75 win over the Mavericks. Danilo Gallinari finished with 16 points and didn’t miss a shot, going 4-for-4 from the field, including 2-for-2 from the 3-point line and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Gallinari shot it well in the two home games, going 11-of-12 from the field, 6-of-6 from the arc and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.

Wilson Chandler added 14 points and Nikola Jokic 12 points with six rebounds for the Nuggets.

The Nuggets will take Saturday off before getting back to practice Sunday.

“If anything didn’t go wrong Thursday, I was probably going to have some spot minutes (Friday in the Nuggets’ preseason finale),” Arthur said. “But I don’t want to push it to the point where I have to sit back another two or three days out of practice.”

Arthur also had been concerned about his conditioning, since he wasn’t able to run while he rehabbed the knee on which he had arthroscopic surgery late in the summer. But his conditioning didn’t turn out to be much of an issue.

“My conditioning wasn’t too bad,” he said. “It wasn’t to where I want it to be, for sure. But I thought I played decent. From the outside looking in everyone told me I was running well, looking great, that my conditioning didn’t look that bad.”

Malone said the team will play it safe with Arthur.

“We’re not going to rush him,” Malone said. “We’re going to be smart about this, give him some rest and hopefully he’ll be available next Wednesday and get some good practices leading up to that.”

Meanwhile, the news on Gary Harris continues to be encouraging for the Nuggets.

“Gary Harris has made unbelievable progress,” Malone said. “I think he is ahead of the original four- to six-week window that was given to him when he injured it in Game 1 at Toronto in Calgary. In talking to our (doctors and trainers) and talking with Gary, I definitely think that — no pressure — but I think there’s a good chance that he could play on Wednesday night. Which would be nice to have our starting backcourt from last season out there.”

Emmanuel Mudiay also did not play Friday night because of a sprained ankle, but both he and Malone are confident he’ll be ready to play Wednesday night.

Footnote.

The Nuggets picked up fourth-year options on Harris and center Jusuf Nurkic. They picked up the third-year option on Mudiay. Rookie scale contracts are two years, plus team options in years three and four.