Portland Trail Blazers: Dame Time and Wait Time
The Portland Trail Blazers made due without Damiam Lillard in 2021-22. He came back this year and looked great. Until he was injured again.
Damian Lillard‘s 2021-22 season was cut abdominal injury and surgery. He’s back this year and looks as good as ever. Until he was injured again on Wednesday.
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard made it through 29 games last season before shutting it down. He opted for surgery to deal with a core injury that had been bothering him for some time.
In an interview with Orlando Sanchez of KGW Sports, he said, “I didn’t realize how bad it was because I had been dealing with it for four-and-a-half years.”
Lillard said that after games, the swelling was the size of a baseball. After surgery, he’s been able to “build himself up from scratch. He feels stronger than ever.
Dame Relearns How To Live His Life
He had to relearn how to live his life and what a normal life could look like.
“I was just fighting through it. So to wake up every day and be able to work out, to do some conditioning, then go home and feel good and be strong and build myself back up from scratch. I haven’t just done rehab on my surgery.
It’s been other things that I’ve been dealing with as well, where I’ve been able to correct those things and put a real plan together. And put a team of PT and strength and conditioning and basketball and speed and agility and sports science.
Put a team of people together where everything isn’t just hard, hard, hard. Today is a medium day; today is a light day; take this day off.
So it’s gotten me to the point where I really feel as strong as I’ve ever felt. I feel healthy. 100% healthy. I feel strong.”
Slow out of the Gate
As could be expected, Lillard looked a little rusty in his return to the NBA this preseason. In just under 25 minutes per game for the Portland Trail Blazers, he averaged 15 points a game while shooting 39% from the field and 33% from the 3-point line.
On the bright side, he shot over 92% from the free throw line.
Shaking Off The Rust
The preseason was all the time Dame needed to shake off the rust after several months away from playing basketball every day. He started this season on a tear, and the Portland Trail Blazers are off to a 4-0 start to the regular season.
Lillard averages just over 33 points a game to go along with 50% shooting from the field and 40% from 3-point range. He also averages over 5 rebounds and assists per game.
Dame appears to be back to his prime self. It will be exciting to see if he can sustain/maintain this pace throughout the 2022-23 NBA season.
Back to the Trainer
Everything was going fine until Wednesday night. Lillard was off to a quick start against Miami, leading all scorers with 22 points in the first half. Unfortunately, Dame left the game with a calf strain. The Portland Trail Blazers will be without him for 1-2 weeks.
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