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Portland Trail Blazers Injuries Are Adding Up

By Chris St. Jean

Dec 17, 2014; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers forward Thomas Robinson (41), guard Damian Lillard (0) and guard Wesley Matthews (2) look over Portland Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum (88) after he suffered an apparent injury during the fourth quarter of the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2014; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers forward Thomas Robinson (41), guard Damian Lillard (0) and guard Wesley Matthews (2) look over Portland Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum (88) after he suffered an apparent injury during the fourth quarter of the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports /
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For the Portland Trail Blazers the playoffs can’t come fast enough. The Trail Blazers injuries continue to be a problem this season.

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the Blazers should be resting LaMarcus Aldridge at the very least. At that point it was clear that the Blazers would not fall lower than the No. 4 seed due to their likely insurmountable lead for the division title.

It was also clear that they had very little chance of making up enough ground to get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

As early as April 1, the Blazers had really nothing to play for.  Since then LaMarcus played five games, Nicolas Batum has played in seven, and Damian Lillard, who has been as resilient as you can get during his career, has played in all eight games.

The run of bad luck started in December when Robin Lopez missed 23 games with two broken bones in his hand. Then LaMarcus Aldridge, in the midst of December in which he won Player of the Week twice, missed three games the same month with nagging injuries.

Things got serious in February when it was announced that Aldridge would be getting surgery on his thumb and would miss up to six weeks in the middle of the season.  Of course that never happened.

Aldridge declined the surgery and continued to play but it was not the end of the injury scares for Portland. Wesley Matthews was the big one. When he tore his Achilles and was ruled out for the rest of the season, it was a major (maybe the deciding) blow to the Trail Blazers title chances and their defense just hasn’t been the same since.

Arron Afflalo is not Wes Matthews, but he did offer a sort of wing insurance in the starting lineup. But last week Afflalo went down with a shoulder strain and is expected to miss 1-2 weeks.

And then on Monday, in a game that literally meant nothing to Portland, Chris Kaman, C.J. McCollum, and, most importantly, Nicolas Batum were all injured.

For Kaman he re-aggravated a back injury that has cost him games in recent weeks, but it doesn’t look serious. McCollum has been playing great basketball as Grantland’s Zach Lowe points out, and his role has been ever increasing as injuries occur ahead of him. Luckily, it doesn’t look like his injury was serious either.

But it’s the Nicolas Batum injury, that was the scariest and although X-rays were negative, may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Portland. As much as he struggled this season (through injuries, it should be noted), he is extremely important to what they do both offensively and defensively.

I wrote recently why Batum may be the Blazers only hope of an extended playoff run.  Batum won’t miss time, and that’s good, but if he has to play through injury in these playoff games, it could put the Blazers at a big disadvantage.

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    • It’s becoming more and more likely that the Blazers dodge the two toughest first-round opponents, the Spurs and the Clippers, and that they will face teams that have injury questions of their own in Memphis and Houston.

    That’s all the more frustrating for Portland that they can’t be as healthy as possible for the playoffs.

    Last season the Blazers had pretty insane luck when it comes to the health of their starting lineup. The starting lineup played in 1,373 minutes over the course of the season, good for the second-most in the league according to NBA.com.

    That same lineup only played 629 minutes together this season, less than half as much.

    It’s unfortunate really.  The Blazers were probably a better team this season.  More seasoned and experienced, deeper, and smarter about what they were trying to accomplish.  If they had the injury luck that they had last season, we might be talking about the Blazers as one of the favorites to win the NBA championship.

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