Julian Strawther out at least 4 weeks with left knee injury, Nuggets say

Nuggets guard Julian Strawther will miss at least four weeks after spraining his left knee Sunday in Boston, the team announced Tuesday.

Strawther, who turns 23 in April, is averaging 9.4 points and 2.2 rebounds off the bench this season. He’s shooting 43.4% from the field and 35.7% from the 3-point line, a 6% improvement from his rookie year. A Rising Stars Game participant at All-Star weekend last month, he played in all 61 of the Nuggets’ games before the injury.

Strawther had to be helped to his feet by teammates after landing awkwardly during the third quarter of Denver’s 110-103 loss to the Celtics on Sunday. Third-string point guard Jalen Pickett checked in for him and helped fill Strawther’s minutes the rest of the game, including a stint alongside Jamal Murray with the second unit.

“I was just happy that it wasn’t anything serious,” coach Michael Malone said after the loss. “That was my first fear, was that it was going to be one of those scary injuries. I think it was more his knee, but I haven’t really gotten much clarification on that. I don’t think it’s anything that we have to worry about moving forward.”

A four-week reevaluation timeline puts Strawther on track to return on April 1 at the earliest, when Denver hosts the first game of a back-to-back against the Timberwolves and Spurs. After that back-to-back, only five games will remain in the regular season, which ends April 13 in Houston.

The injury makes it more difficult for the Nuggets to evaluate Strawther’s playoff viability over the next month. Malone has played him in the rotation all season, allowing the young guard to develop as a scorer and play through struggles at the other end of the floor. But general manager Calvin Booth has publicly expressed concern about whether those defensive shortcomings can survive a playoff setting, and Malone has pointed out as recently as Feb. 22 that “teams are targeting” Strawther.

It’s a matter of risk vs. reward for Denver. Strawther’s offense needs to be consistent enough to make him worth playing in spite of any potential defensive deficiencies. He had a stretch of four consecutive games with 11 or more points in February, including two with 18. But in the next five games after that, he was held to six points or fewer four times, missing 12 of 14 shots beyond the arc.