Denver Nuggets Give Injury Update on Starter

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope gave Nugget fans a scare when suffered a head injury in the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls. After a collision with Nikola Vucevic, Pope was suddenly out of the game, and then he just as suddenly returned back into the game during the second quarter

“I was surprised when I saw him,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I asked him, ‘How do you feel?’ He goes, ‘I’m good, I think I can go,’ so I put him in the game. And then as the second quarter was ending, I said, ‘How you doing?’ And he goes, ‘I’m OK.’ I said, ‘Well let’s get through halftime and see where you’re at.’ And it just didn’t make any sense to put him back out there. Let’s go home and hopefully get healthy and whole for our game in a couple of days.”

Pope ended up sitting out the entire second half against the Chicago Bulls and was officially diagnosed with a head contusion. At the moment of the collision though, there was legitimate concern that Pope may have suffered a concussion. His sudden disappearance from the first quarter was to get a concussion protocol test, and his return was due to him passing the test.

Between Nikola Jokic's ejection and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's injury, Tuesday night could have been a very scary one for the Denver Nuggets. Fortunately, the team came out relatively unscathed and even came out with the win.