MURRAY PLAYING WITH SORE CALF
INDIANAPOLIS» Jamal Murray was a late addition to the Nuggets’ Sunday injury report with right calf tightness that coach Michael Malone said limited Murray to seven second-half minutes in Friday’s win at Orlando.
Murray, who has never missed a game in his NBA career and played the bulk of his rookie season with two sports hernias, started Sunday’s contest while wearing a sleeve on his right leg. But Malone said the medical staff would monitor Murray’s ability to push the ball and move laterally on defense. Murray finished with 13 points in 27 minutes.
Just in case Murray misses more time, the Nuggets called up twoway guard Monte Morris from the G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers in time for Sunday’s game. The Nuggets’ second-round draft pick is averaging 16.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.2 steals in 15 games while playing both guard spots for the Vipers.
Under a two-way contract, Morris is permitted to spend 45 total days with the Nuggets. Torrey Craig, who is under the same type of contract, spent three days with Denver about two weeks ago while starting forward Wilson Chandler battled pain in his lower back. Two-way contracts are new in the NBA this season, but Malone said he is not concerned with how to best manage those 45 days throughout the season.
“If you keep on worrying about the 45 days, at the end of the season, they’ll both have 30 days left that you could have used them,” Malone said. “Call them up. And if it becomes a problem or a concern, we can figure it out later. …
“It’s a nice reward for (Morris) to come up and be with the big boys a little bit and be around his teammates that care about him.”
Malone an Oladipo fan.
Pacers guard Victor Oladipo looks like an all-star contender early in the season, dropping a career-high 47 points and adding seven rebounds and six assists in Sunday’s overtime win over Denver.
Consider Malone a fan of Oladipo the player and the man.
The Denver coach spent time with Oladipo at the NBA Africa game last summer and was impressed by Oladipo’s sincere, giving nature when the teams visited a local orphanage.
“Here’s an NBA player who kind of gets it,” Malone said. “Seeing him with the orphans, seeing him working with the campers, just who he is as a person, you can tell right away he’s a special, special guy.
“That’s why I root for him. That’s why I’m happy he’s having the season he’s having, because he’s about all the right things.”