Kenyon Martin, who created a stir by walking off to the locker room with 3 minutes left in his last game, sat out entirely Saturday night when the Denver Nuggets played the Portland Trail Blazers.
Martin fell at practice Friday and bruised his surgically repaired left knee.
"It was a pretty good one. He fell hard," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "I thought he could maybe make it this afternoon, but I decided against it."
Karl said he figures Martin will be back in the lineup Monday night at Golden State.
Martin had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the offseason. It's been tender for much of the season, affecting his play, although his game has really picked up in the last two weeks.
But he walked away from the Nuggets bench with 3 minutes left in Denver's 13-point loss at Utah on Wednesday night and spent the next two days explaining the episode and accusing the media of making him out to look like a bad guy.
Martin insisted he wasn't walking out on his teammates or the organization, but was frustrated with the team's four-game losing streak and his chronically ailing left knee and sore back. He said he went for ice treatment before returning to Denver's bench for the final few seconds.
Martin accused the media of trying to make trouble and Karl agreed with his forward, saying: "I think you guys like to stir things up and throw logs on a fire that doesn't exist."