The injury bug is biting Moe Harkless again, at an especially inopportune time.

The Portland Trail Blazers' wing left his team's Game 2 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday with five minutes and 42 seconds remaining in the second quarter after turning his right ankle. Though initially deemed questionable to return to the action, Harkless sat out the game's remainder, replaced as a starter in the second half by Jake Layman.

A subsequent MRI revealed that the seventh-year pro had merely suffered a right ankle sprain. However, his status for Friday's Game 3 at Moda Center is still in doubt.

Harkless, Portland's starting small forward, battled nagging knee pain for the majority of the regular season after undergoing offseason surgery. He was first limited by the knee injury last spring, even missing two of his team's four games against the New Orleans Pelicans in a first-round loss.

In 60 games this season, Harkless averaged 7.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 23.6 minutes per game. Though he shot a career-best 58.2 percent from two-point range during the regular season, Harkless managed just 27.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc, a major drop-off from his 41.5 percent three-point shooting in 2017-18.

Harkless is just 3-of-11 from three in the playoffs so far, but Portland's offensive rating with him on the floor is 113.1 – nearly four points better than its average. That discrepancy has more to do with the players Harkless is on the floor with than his significant individual impact, but coupled with his defensive versatility and penchant for deflections, still reflects his worth to the Blazers.

Portland, with Rodney Hood, Evan Turner, and Layman, can get by without Harkless, but won't be at its two-way best if he's unavailable to play. Here's hoping he's healthy enough to play in Game 3.