Damian Lillard will miss his second-straight game tonight, listing abdominal tendinopathy as the reason. It’s an injury that’s plagued him much of this season with the most intense flare ups occurring during the Olympics, this summer. Dame has missed a total of eight-games and does not seem to be recovering fully from an outsider’s perspective. Couple that information with the reality that Portland is 14-22 and continues sliding down the Western Conference standings. This all begs the question; How close are we to shutting down Dame Time for the season?
That’s something head coach Chauncey Billups seems to have been mulling the past couple of days.
“I think what we’re gonna do is just kind of meet, put all our heads together here soon and then talk through some of those things,” Billups told local media outlets.. “I think that’s probably gonna be the route that we go if he doesn’t get some kind of relief there. Because I can only imagine how frustrated he is. We all know that this dude wants to play every game and play every minute of every game.”
Billups makes a good point. Lillard’s ultra-competitive nature likely drives a premature desire to get back on the court, no matter the status of his abdomen. Who could blame him? Portland is 2-7 without him. They’ve also lost 14 of their last 18 games and four of their last five in this stretch. He wants to help the team win, but his body is saying otherwise.
No matter what the decision, the Trail Blazers need to act fast. Without a plan of action before the all-star break, the team could be in perpetual limbo till next season.