The Portland Trail Blazers have yet to find their footing in the 2021-22 NBA season. They currently have a record of 11-12 and are in 9th place in the Western Conference. They will now have to navigate things without All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard for a little while.
Lillard is going to be sidelined for at least the next 10 days because of an abdominal injury deemed lower abdominal tendinopathy. He has been dealing with this injury going back to his time with Team USA at the Olympics. Lillard has not used that as an excuse for his performance, but he has not looked the same this season.
For now, the team is hopeful that a lot of rest in the coming days will do Lillard well. For now, surgery is not an option, but if rest does not do the trick, it might have to be something that the team considers in the future.
If Lillard will be resting for the majority of the time he is out, he will likely be away from the court for more than 10 days. He will need time to test things out and get his conditioning back up before he can return to the court.
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Lillard has reportedly been dealing with this issue for more than three years, which is crazy to think about. He has ascended up player rankings since then; imagine what he would accomplish not having to nurse an abdominal injury?
This season has been a struggle for the Weber State product. This is the worst shooting season of his career as he is making only 39.7 percent of his shots overall and 30.2 percent of his 3-point attempts. The 21.5 points per game are the lowest since the 2014-15 season, his third in the league.
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Portland has four more games in the 10-day timetable Damian Lillard is expected to miss. His shutdown could not have come at a much worse time, as the Portland Trail Blazers have eight consecutive and 14 out of the next 15 games against teams currently at or above the .500 mark.
