Haven’t we seen enough of the injuries with the Denver Nuggets? Apparently not, as Quincy Miller suffered a right ankle sprain, after playing just nine minutes, and was unable to return to action. The injury occurred on the far end of the floor and the Tweets coming in were not sounding good, from those watching the game on TV.
Miller did return to the Nuggets bench, didn't have the ankle wrapped, but did have some ice with him, and left the bench on crutches without putting weight on the leg. Miller said after the game that it was just a sprain, we'll wait to see if the Nuggets run any tests on it to see if there is further damage, but he was in good spirits after the contest.
The team fell to the D-League Select team 87-75 and will now go into the consolation bracket, where they will have just one game left to play in Sin City. It wasn't a pretty game from the Nuggets as they again struggled shooting the ball. As a team, Denver shot just 37% (27-73) and went just 6-22 from deep (27.3%).
The team had their fourth different starting lineup of the tournament as surprises David Lighty and Jerelle Benimon got the start along with Erick Green, Gary Harris, and Q. Lighty and Benimon have been two bright spots for this team. Benimon goes 6’8″ and has a big body that he uses well. He’s undersized, way undersized, as a center, but he pulled down 8 rebounds on the night and was active fighting for boards.
Green led the way with 17 points on 6-17 shooting (0-4 from deep, 3-3 from the foul line) to go along with 3 assists and 3 steals. Green’s outside shooting has betrayed him in this summer session and his ability to finish in the paint with traffic hasn’t been great. The Nuggets coaches in the stands were calling out for their team to attack the rim, but Denver found little success when they did so (getting shots blocked and Carlon Brown missed two dunks).
Harris scored 15 points, but it took him 18 shot attempts to get there (five makes). He went 2-6 from deep and added 4 assists and 4 steals (three of those steals came in the first quarter). Harris also had a team-high 5 turnovers on the night. His shot selection was better this evening, but he still doesn't attack as much as you'd like to see. He often will pull-up for jumpers, as that's the easier play. Brian Shaw's offense will provide for many threes and jumpers, but if Harris wants to really crack the rotation, he has to be more aggressive on offense when training camp and preseason rolls around.
Still have to applaud Harris' willingness and tenacity on defense. He has active hands, jumps into passing lanes, and stays in front of his man very well. We don't pay enough attention to defense and Harris might help get us to pay better attention to that end of the floor.
Before Miller left the game, he was just 1-6 shooting and had a similar issue as Harris … too many jumpers and not enough aggressive drives into the paint. It's understandable at Summer League, as there isn't a ton of attacking, but that kind of play won't get guys very many minutes when the real games come.
Overall, it has been disappointing to once again see a SL Nuggets team without any true big men prospects on the roster. Having the guards be the entire offense leads to way to many jumpers and on tired legs those jumpers haven't been finding their home.
