If the Portland Trail Blazers are going to extend their first round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, they’ll have to do it without the services of their best player. The team announced on Tuesday afternoon that Damian Lillard will not be able to play on Wednesday evening due to an injury he suffered on Monday night. The injury is classified as a right knee sprain.
The results of a second MRI confirm Damian Lillard with a right knee sprain. Lillard is listed as out for Game 5.
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) August 25, 2020
Lillard hurt his knee in the third quarter of Monday’s blowout loss, which propelled Los Angeles to a 3-1 lead in the series. He gingerly made his way to the back and was ruled out for the remainder of the game, and the results from the first MRI he received were inconclusive.
While it is, certainly, great that Lillard did not suffer a more serious injury that could require surgery and/or months of rehabilitation, losing him for Game 5 seems like the sort of thing that could lead to the team’s entertaining run in Orlando coming to an end. Lillard has been the team’s heart and soul during their time in the Bubble, earning the MVP award for the seeding games and providing numerous moments where he put the team on his back and led them to a win. Now, the onus to get the team to a Game 6 falls onto guys like Carmelo Anthony, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic, all of whom are capable of doing incredible things but have quite the tall task ahead of them,
There’s no word on whether the injury is such that Lillard will be unable to play in a potential Game 6.
