One of the biggest knocks on Denver Nugget forward Kenyon Martin is his inability to stay on the floor due to his rickety old knees. Martin watched his teammates collect a win in Indiana last night in his absence, but how much longer could he be out and how’s it gonna impact The Lake Show?

Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin missed the game last night due to what the team called patella tendonitis in his left knee. Yahoo! Sports is reporting he has a partial tear in the patella tendon and surgery is one option for him.

“I don’t know where Marc Spears got that from, man,” Martin told NBA FanHouse . “It’s a little more than tendinitis, but I don’t know if it’s torn. I had an MRI (on Thursday). They looked at it. There’s a lot of speculation going on. … It’s more serious than tendinitis but I don’t know yet.”

Nuggets head coach George Karl wasn’t saying much after the game.

“I’m not going to go there,” Karl told The Denver Post. “I don’t know enough about the injury right now. We’re hoping everything is going to be OK.”

Impact on Lakers:

If Martin is out for an extended period, it will certainly affect Denver’s rebounding, toughness and D. However, they do have the luxury of calling on “Birdman” to fill the void off the bench, but he doesn’t have a jumper as good as Martin’s – although K-Mart’s does leave a lot to be desired as well.

It also takes away from their depth in the frontcourt as Malik Allen is their only remaining “decent” backup big man.

Martin’s injury comes at a terrible time as Dallas and Utah are right on their tails for the West’s second best record. It would be best for the Lakes to keep Denver at 2, Utah at 3 and Dallas at 4. That way we don’t have to play Denver or Utah until the Western Conference Finals, the two toughest threats in the West that can prevent us from repeating, IMO.

If that happens,  the Lakes would then only have to get past, perhaps Portland – EEESSSHHH!!! – then Dallas in the 2ndRound and the Nuggets/Jazz winner to get back to the Finals.