NUGGETS TEAM NEWS CENTER

Porter Jr. acknowledged Thursday that the right ankle injury he suffered at Milwaukee on Jan. 31 was “worse than I thought” and that he was playing through pain when he did return after the All-Star break. Porter has access to a private gym that he can use whenever he wants. “I’ve literally been in the gym just as much as I was in Denver, which has been really good,” Porter said on Altitude’s digital show. “I feel like I haven’t really lost a lot. And it’s been good for my ankle, too, because you know my ankle was still kind of sore. I’m kind of using this time as beneficial to me, getting to rest that ankle,” Porter added. “It was a pretty bad sprain, worse than I thought. It’s been good to just be able to get my body back right and everything. Yeah, I was playing through a lot of pain. Especially planting on it and cutting. That was tough for me. I felt like I needed to play, obviously.”