Aaron Gordon downgraded to questionable
MINNEAPOLIS— Aaron Gordon provided an ominous one-word reply when requested how his physique felt late Monday night time, after the Nuggets misplaced Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
“Older,” the versatile energy ahead stated.
“I’ve got some recovery to do.”
By opening tip of the following sport, Denver’s first damage alarm of the playoffs had sounded. It was all the time going to occur in some unspecified time in the future. But this was before the Nuggets needed.
Gordon was listed as possible with left calf tightness on Thursday morning, earlier than Game 3 at Minnesota. Then he was downgraded to questionable within the afternoon. He had a number of onerous landings within the first two video games of the sequence, grimacing at occasions.
Gordon, 31, spent a lot of the common season going out and in of the lineup with a recurring proper hamstring pressure. The left calf tightness first popped up on March 29when he awakened feeling discomfort and reported it to the workforce. He sat out that night against the Warriorsa choice made out of precaution.
Last season, Gordon missed 31 video games and got here off the bench in 9 others due to a proper calf pressure. He performed via that damage in the course of the playoffs, scoring two game-winners for Denver. The complete time, he was “taking a chance every time he explodes and jumps,” Adelman stated final May. Gordon ended up struggling a left hamstring pressure in Game 6 of Denver’s second-round sequence towards Oklahoma City. He tried to play via that as nicely in Game 7, contributing eight factors and 11 rebounds in a season-ending loss.
Sidelined largely by the precise hamstring this yr, he appeared in solely 36 regular-season video games, averaging 16.2 factors, 5.8 rebounds and a couple of.7 assists. He amassed eight factors, seven boards and 4 assists in Denver’s Game 2 loss to the Timberwolves on Monday, logging 37 minutes.
“I’m doing everything that I possibly can,” he stated afterward. “Now it’s about just moving slower.”
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