More trouble for the Portland Trail Blazers. According to Chris Haynes (Yahoo Sports), Damian Lillard has undergone surgery to treat the abdominal injury that has dragged on since the summer and that was aggravated during the Olympic Games. You will be out for at least six weeks when you will be reassessed. His loss joins CJ McCollum, who has been off the track since the beginning of December due to a pneumothorax in the right lung. The escort is already recovered, but he has still played again: next week he will have a review to find out when he can return to the courts.
His absence is a torpedo to the waterline of a team that does not fuel this course. It is in positions of play-in in the 10th position of the classification with a balance of 16 wins and 24 losses. Some very troublesome numbers for the Blazers who have been in the playoffs for eight straight years and have more than 40 wins in seven of those eight seasons. Only in 2019-20, that of the pandemic, was it below 35.
This summer the franchise wanted to give a new impetus to a project that shows signs of exhaustion. Terry Stotts, the coach since 2012-13, left and Chauncey Billups arrived as an offering to Lillard, but there were no big changes in the squad. No big reinforcements arrived and nothing changed in Portland, which without Lillard and without McCollum they can end this season.