Blazers news: Damian Lillard opens up on groin injury, how many games he'll miss

Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard opened up on his groin injury and when he plans to return from it.

Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard underwent an MRI, and the results confirmed a groin strain.

The good news is that Lillard didn’t hear a pop when he injured his groin against the Memphis Grizzlies. The star will spend All-Star Weekend recovering. Lillard spoke to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports about the injury, opening up about the “weird play” when the injury happened and when he thinks he'll be back:

“I'm going to take my time and just try to do all the things that I can do to give myself the best chance to be ready when we come out after the break. But if not, I would say maybe miss one game after the break or try to be back, at least, try not to at least miss one or two more games.”

Lillard is averaging 29.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 7.9 assists on the season for the Blazers. He’s shooting 46.0 percent from the field, 39.3 percent from beyond the arc and 88.9 percent from the free-throw line.

Lillard and the Blazers are 25-31 on the season. They are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings after reaching the Western Conference Finals last season. Portland will have to go on a crazy run in the second half of the season to reach the conference finals again.

Damian Lillard won’t play in the All-Star Game or compete in the 3-Point Contest. He will still rap on Saturday, though. Chicago fans are certainly looking forward to seeing Lillard on the mic, although they would have rather seen him play in Sunday's game.

—

Follow ClutchPoints on Twitter & Instagram, and like us on Facebook for more news on Damian Lillard, the Blazers and NBA. We can also be found on Flipboard where you can subscribe and follow us.

All of our NBA content can be found on the NBA section of the ClutchPoints home page here. For all of our college basketball content, click here.

Follow Damian Lillard and the Blazers, or other NBA games live by downloading the ClutchPoints App and heading to the scores tab under the NBA section.

You can listen and subscribe to the Battle for LA podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Soundcloud. You can also find new episodes of Battle for LA, the ClutchPoints NBA Podcast, and Establish the Pass under the Podcast tab on the ClutchPoints home page.