Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard says he will be a game-time decision for his team's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic.
Lillard says his back tightened up during a lifting session on Thursday.
“Might be a thing I just have to play through. We’ll see,” said Lillard.
In 14 games this season, Lillard is averaging 28.6 points, 7.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals over 38.3 minutes per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the floor, 35.7 percent from three-point range and 92.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Obviously, with the Blazers' early struggles this season, this is the last thing the team wanted to hear about its star player.
Portland has gotten off to a sloppy 5-11 start and has lost three games in a row. Most recently, the Blazers fell to the Milwaukee Bucks by a score of 137-129 last Thursday.
Last year, the Blazers won 53 games and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2001, where they were swept by the Golden State Warriors.
While Portland wasn't viewed on the same level as the Los Angeles Clippers or Los Angeles Lakers coming into this season, it was still widely regarded as one of the better teams in the West and was generally thought to be a sure-fire playoff team.
But one month into the season, the Blazers have been anything but that, in a rugged conference that is certainly not forgiving of slow starts, Portland would greatly benefit from turning things around as soon as possible.
Follow Us
Subscribe