(Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Earlier this week, Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard underwent abdominal surgery. The team announced that he will be re-evaluated in six weeks, though he could be out as long as eight weeks or even longer. After averaging 30.0 points per game in the 2019-20 season and 28.8 points per game in the 2020-21 season, Lillard has regressed a bit this year in his production, averaging 24.0 points per game. The last season he averaged fewer than 25 points per game was his third season in the NBA (21.0 points per game), so for his standards this is quite a drop off.
If you are the Blazers, you have to hope that by undergoing this surgery, that’ll help Lillard get back to his old self where he was averaging 28+ points a night. Lillard hasn’t felt healthy all season long. It’s clear that his production has suffered.
While this surgery is good for Lillard and the Blazers long-term, this does hurt them in the short-term. They are 10th place in the Western Conference standings right now at 17-25, just .5 game up on Sacramento. With Lillard out, it does look unlikely that they’ll hang onto the 10 seed, which means that when he comes back (assuming he does come back this season), they’re likely going to be on the outside looking in of the Western Conference play-in tournament.
If the Trail Blazers are to have any hope of making the play-in tournament and making a run in the playoffs, they’re going to need shooting guard C.J. McCollum (20.6 points) and swingman Norman Powell (18.6 points) to really step up. If those guys can get going and pick up the slack, it’s possible the Trail Blazers hang around and don’t fall too far in the standings.
Speaking of McCollum, he is expected to be back Monday against the Magic per Shams Charania of The Athletic after being out with a collapsed lung that he suffered on December 4th against the Celtics. So that’s one piece of good news for the Trail Blazers.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how the Trail Blazers look without Lillard and whether or not they’ll be able to stay afloat. He’s by far their most important piece and when he’s not on the floor, they’re nowhere near the type of team that they know they are capable of being. Going on without him will be an uphill battle, but it’s the cards they’ve been dealt. They have no choice but to solider on as best they can.
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