NBA

McCollum out for at least four weeks as Trail Blazers suffer another injury blow

By Sports Desk January 19, 2021 1432

The Portland Trail Blazers have been dealt another injury blow with shooting guard CJ McCollum ruled out for at least four weeks.

McCollum hurt his foot during the victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday and sat out Monday's game against the San Antonio Spurs, which ended in a 125-104 loss for the Trail Blazers that saw them slip to 8-6.

Portland were already without center Jusuf Nurkic due to a right wrist fracture and he has been joined on the sidelines by McCollum.

A statement tweeted by the Trail Blazers read: "Further imaging reveals CJ McCollum with a small hairline fracture to the lateral cuneiform in his left foot and a mid-foot sprain.

"McCollum will wear a walking boot and be re-evaluated in four weeks."

Prior to his injury, McCollum was performing at the highest level of his career. Through 13 games he was averaging 26.7 points and 4.8 made three-pointers per game, both of which would be career highs.

Asked about adjusting to the losses of Nurkic and McCollum after the defeat to the Spurs, All-Star point guard Damian Lillard said: "It's tough. We've had that type of luck over the years, it's always been something.

"But we pride ourselves on be able to adjust to that and keep our stride whatever comes our way. We trust our experience in these situations.

"It's not always going to be perfect. When a guy goes down, or in our case two of our best players go down, the next game might not be the game where it just happens. It might be a game or two or three where you struggle and then it clicks, it might be one game or you might not miss a beat.

"It wasn't the outcome we wanted but we're still going to believe in each other, we're still going to have a high level of accountability and I think next game we're going to be better and we should expect to be better."

Last modified on Tuesday, 19 January 2021 09:18
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