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- Enes Kanter will miss his second straight game with a sprained right ankle. The Jazz forward suffered the injury in Wednesday’s win over Minnesota and sat out Friday’s victory over Phoenix. Despite Kanter’s absence the Jazz got plenty of production from their big guys against the Suns. Al Jefferson led the way with 21 points, Paul Millsap had 19 and Derrick Favors had 10 off the bench. “We like all our big guys on our team,” coach Tyrone Corbin said. “All three that played last night did a great job.”
- Denver guard Ty Lawson will start despite still feeling the effects of a strained left Achilles Tendon. He sat out Tuesday’s game against the Clippers but returned to come off the bench against Minnesota on Thursday. Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried missed Saturday’s morning shootaround due to illness and will be a game-time decision. Faried is 10th in the league in rebounding at 10 per game.
- The Nuggets are coming off a disappointing home loss against the Timberwolves, one that coach George Karl attributed to an “arrogance and immaturity” during the team’s practice Wednesday. He said things were better during Friday’s practice. “Everybody was in a thoughtful place after the game against Minnesota,” he said. “We had a good practice yesterday and a good shootaround today. I hope to bounce back with some good energy and intelligence.” Corbin is expecting Denver to come out inspired Saturday. “They’re going to come out and be very aggressive and we have to make sure we match their intensity,” he said. “We’ve got to make a run of our own. We don’t want to come out and respond to what they’re doing, we have to make them respond to what we’re doing as well.”
– Michael Kelly
