The Portland Trail Blazers finally had their scalding hot start to the season come to an end in Miami on Wednesday night as the Heat handed them their first loss of the season, but more important to the Blazers’ long-term hopes of being a playoff contender again was seeing their star leave the game early.
Damian Lillard came up limping in the fourth quarter and left the game with a calf strain, but said afterwards that he would’ve played through the pain had it been a playoff situation. However, despite the star’s insistence it wasn’t serious enough to warrant real concern, word broke on Thursday afternoon that Lillard would be “re-evaluated” in 1-2 weeks, meaning he will miss at least a few games and the team wants to make sure a calf strain doesn’t become a bigger problem.
Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard will be re-evaluated in 1-to-2 weeks with a calf strain, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 27, 2022
There is always some concern when it comes to soft tissue injuries, as there’s no way to know exactly how they will heal and react to treatment. The Blazers clearly don’t want to put early season success ahead of their long-term aspirations, and sitting Dame now to try and get his calf back to full strength before he plays again is certainly the long play, even if Lillard probably isn’t thrilled to be sitting.
In the meantime, Anfernee Simons becomes the star in the backcourt for Portland, and will have a chance to show what he can do as a leading man with a playoff-caliber roster around him (sans an All-NBA guard). If there is a bit of consolation, it’s that the Blazers are about to have four days off after playing Houston on Friday night, meaning they can rest Lillard for a full week and, potentially, only have him miss two games — but that is followed by a stretch of five games in seven days.