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Murphy and the Nose

Murphy left last night's game after taking an elbow to his nose. It's unclear how long he'll be out for, but he's going to miss at least the next two preseason games.

Murphy did not have X-rays taken Tuesday, but the team nevertheless said that "preliminary indications" were that he had suffered the third or fourth broken nose of his NBA career. Coach Don Nelson said Murphy "will probably miss some time" with the injury.

"This is a bad one, yeah. Sometimes you get hit here and there, but this one I could see under my eye," said Murphy, who showed he hadn't lost his sense of humor. "Unfortunately, the hair did not deflect any of the blow."

At least Troy can joke about it. We wish him the best in his recovery because we need him out there. He's going to come back with that whole plastic face mask ala Rip Hamilton. Then the Warriors will go on a tear when he comes back and win the NBA title, just like Detroit did when Rip came back. Right? Right? Okay maybe not. But maybe he'll keep wearing the mask for the rest of his career if he's already broken his nose three or four times in his short career (so the article says). Seriously, that's about once every 1.5 years. Hopefully the masked man returns soon.

If Murphy is going to miss a significant chunk of time, what are the Warriors going to do? They can't go much smaller and move their power forward, Dunleavy, to center. So right now the only options are playing Biedrins, Notorious POB, Ike, or Foyle. Biedrins is the most obvious choice because of his nice play and experience at the center position so far. So who's going to be the backup? Well, this is a great chance for the other three to prove that they deserve some time when Murphy does come back. Hopefully we don't have to find out.

What's Nellie going to do if Murphy has to miss a lot of time?

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