With the NBA regular season winding down, teams are beginning to make preparations for the postseason and/or the draft lottery. On Sunday, the slumping Portland Trail Blazers will take on the surging Minnesota Timberwolves.
Update the most recent Injury Report for the Blazers vs. the Timberwolves
FOR THE BLAZERS
The Blazers have lost their last five games and eleven of their previous twelve. They took another loss on Friday, this time to the Sacramento Kings by a score of 138-114.
Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Blazers, said, ,”It always sucks to lose,” “To get to this point in the season, I didn’t think we would be here last year, to be honest with you, but we are. These games are tough. Tough on me, tough at all levels.”
One encouraging sign has been the play of rookie guard Shaedon Sharpe, who has averaging 24.3 points per game over the last six contests and scored 27 points against the Kings.
Each night, “He’s seeing so many new things every single night,” Billups added. “He’s going to be fine. He learns things so quickly. We’ll go over things and watch film and talk about what we need and, boom, right away he knows how to do it. He’s doing good.”
According to Chris Haynes of Turner Sports, Lillard’s 2022–23 season is over due to a calf injury.
As Shams Charania of The Athletic predicted, the Trail Blazers would bench Lillard now that they are five games out of the eighth and final playoff place.
Lillard has missed the last three games. Due to the absence of key players like Anfernee Simons (foot), Jerami Grant (quadriceps), and possibly even Cam Reddish (back), Shaedon Sharpe, Keon Johnson, Nassir Little, and Cam Reddish (back) may get increased playing time in the final weeks of the regular season.
With only five games left and a very weakened roster, the Blazers are certainly playing out the thread. Lillard isn’t the only starter missing this game for the Trail Blazers; Jusuf Nurkic (knee), Anfernee Simons (foot), and Jerami Grant all have injuries (quad).
None of the three are likely to return before the season concludes. For the remainder of the season, the Blazers have been compelled to acquire further players. The organization just recently extended 10-day contracts to Skylar Mays and Shaq Harrison, keeping them on the roster for the rest of the season.
FOR THE TIMBEWOLVES
After a rough start to the season, Minnesota beat Portland 113-106 on January 4.
A sickness that has spread among the Minnesota Timberwolves’ roster has struck at the worst conceivable time.
The Timberwolves (39-39) host the Trail Blazers (32-45), who will miss the playoffs for the third straight year, on Sunday.
Right now, our biggest worries are about Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards. On Sunday, will they watch the game with us? Let’s maintain our pace.
Rudy Gobert will almost certainly have a role in today’s game against the Blazers.
Anthony Edwards’ health has put into question his availability for Sunday’s game against the Trail Blazers.
Since returning from an ankle injury, Edwards‘ shooting percentages have dropped to 41.8% from the field, 29.6% from deep, and 53.3% from the charity stripe.
He is still feeling the effects of the sickness that has been going around the Minnesota team locker room. By Karl-Anthony Towns (ankle, flu). With only four games remaining, the Wolves have fallen all the way down to ninth place in the Western Conference.
Look at what the Timberwolves were up to in the moments before kickoff
The top 10 teams in the Western Conference would proceed to a play-in round, with the Timberwolves leading the Dallas Mavericks by 1 1/2 games on Saturday.
In Friday’s 123-111 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in front of their home crowd, Wolves guard Anthony Edwards was one of several players who battled illness. Edwards shot only 4 of 16 from the field for a final total of 11 points.
The Timberwolves led the Lakers by as many as 13 points in the third quarter. Charles Hitchcock, head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, isn’t budging despite the fact that five starters (Karl-Anthony Towns, Taurean Prince, Mike Conley, Austin Rivers, and Kyle Anderson) have been sidelined by illness during the previous week.
Against the Lakers, Towns scored 23 points and Conley added 25 points and seven assists for the Wolves, who will end the season on the road against the Nets and the Spurs before hosting the Pelicans.
Let’s take a look at the Timberwolves’ injured roster for today’s game versus the Blazers.
- Anthony Edwards (Illness): Game Time Decision
- Karl-Anthony Towns (Calf): Game Time Decision
- Austin Rivers (Illness): Game Time Decision
- Naz Reid (Wrist): Expected to be out until at least May 12
- Jaylen Nowell (Knee): Game Time Decision
