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Nuggets point guard Andre Miller plays through shoulder injury

Some things are easier than keeping Andre Miller off the basketball court.

Keeping snow off the driveway during a December blizzard.

Keeping a starving cat off a counter covered with tuna.

“Andre is a warrior,” Nuggets teammate Ty Lawson said. “You have to chop off his leg for him to sit out a game.”

Out of a possible 1,028 games, the Nuggets point guard has missed just three due to injury in his 13-year NBA career. He had no interest in making it four.

Two days after separating his right shoulder, Miller was back on the floor for the Nuggets Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons.

The initial plan was to rest for one game, but Miller convinced coach George Karl and the team's training staff that he could play.

“It’s not football,” Miller said. “If it was football, I wouldn’t play. But it’s basketball.”

Playing with protective padding under his jersey, Miller handed out seven assists and grabbed six rebounds in 20 minutes.

“That’s all I needed to do,” he said. “I don’t need to shoot on this team. We score enough points where I can just come in and (run the offense) and I’m fine with it.”

Miller saw his streak of 632 consecutive games end last season when he served a one-game suspension for a flagrant foul against Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin.

The last time he missed a game due to injury was during the 2002-03 season when he sat out two games with sprained ankle. He also missed one game with a bruised shoulder while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2001-02.