Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is leaving the NBA bubble to get his injured right knee checked.
The team made the announcement on Wednesday, noting that Lillard's return to the Walt Disney World campus for the playoffs is yet to be determined. Dame sustained the knee injury during Game 4 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Damian Lillard will leave the NBA campus in Orlando on Thursday & return to Portland for further examination of his injured right knee. Lillard's availability to return to the Orlando campus is yet to be determined. Further updates will be provided as necessary.
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) August 27, 2020
With this relatively unsurprising development, it appears Dame's season has come to an end.
Damian Lillard was pulled out of Portland's Game 4 blowout defeat at the hands of the Lakers on Monday. He was not able to return due to his injured knee, but given the lopsided nature of the contest, it was presumed that the decision was more of a precautionary one.
However, things took a turn for the worse. Lillard's first MRI was inconclusive, and he had a second one done on Tuesday morning. Lillard and the Blazers do not appear to be happy with the results of the same, and they have now opted for their superstar to exit the bubble.
Portland was supposed to take on the Lakers in a do-or-die Game 5 contest, which was postponed as part of the players and teams' protests in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting. Lillard was already ruled out of that game due to the injury, but there was still some hope that he would be able to return should the Blazers succeed in forcing a Game 6 (and/or Game 7).
That appears to be all out of the window now, with Lillard now leaving the campus. The fact that the season has been placed in jeopardy likely played a role in Lillard's decision as well.
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