The Portland Trail Blazers will be without starting center, Jusuf Nurkic, for at least two weeks. This was announced Friday afternoon by Portland's president of basketball operations Neil Oshley. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that Nurkic has a non-displaced right leg fibular fracture. It remains unclear when this injury happened. He will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Big blow for Blazers' playoff hopes
The news of Nurkic's injury came as a shock to every Portland Trail Blazers fan as he (Nurkic) was an intrical part of Portland's most recent playoff push.
Since he was traded to Portland from Denver in February, Nurkic played 20 games for Portland. He is averaging 15.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.9 blocks while playing 29.2 minutes in those 20 games. In his last game against Houston on Thursday night, he recorded 19 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. The Blazers are 14-6 with Nurkic in the roster and this is going to be a big problem for them considering how well he's been playing lately.
They've won their last five games, and eight out of the last ten. Portland is currently at the number eight spot in the Western Conference, two games ahead of the Denver Nuggets who lost to the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night. With only seven games remaining in the regular season, they (Portland Trail Blazers) are hoping that they can make it to the playoffs even without Nurkic's help now.
Huge potential for the future
Terry Stotts' team was hoping to make it to the playoffs healthy, and get some valuable experience with this group of players for the future. Obviously this injury was something they didn't want to see, especially with a young guy like Nurkic. Nurkic showed what he's capable of when he scored a career high 33 points and grabbed 16 big rebounds in a win against his former team (Denver) on Tuesday night.
His most impressive performance came about 20 days ago against the Philadelphia 76ers. Nurkic was dominating the Sixers that night, he finished the game with 28 points, 20 rebounds, eight assists, and six blocks.
Hopefully he recovers quickly so we can watch him perform in the playoffs this season.
