The Portland Trail Blazers have fallen 3.5 games behind in the race for the Western Conference Play-In Tournament. Having fallen that far behind, with only nine games to play, the Blazers are leaning towards shutting down star guard Damian Lillard for the season.
Lillard is dealing with a calf injury. The Blazers star has also recently talked about how sometimes you have to be smart when your team is no longer competitive in a season.
This is looks like it will be the second consecutive one where Portland misses the playoffs. That’s after a run of eight consecutive playoff appearances from 2014 through 2021.
Lillard has appeared in 58 of the Trail Blazers 73 games this season. He’s averaged a career-high 32.2 points per game, in his 11th NBA season.
