The Portland Trail Blazers are without Damian Lillard for a regular season basketball game for the first time since Halloween 2012, snapping his streak of 275 consecutive games played.
The team announced that Lillard would miss Monday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Second leading scorer CJ McCollum will also miss with ankle sprains in both ankles.
Lillard’s streak was second in Blazers history to Clifford Robinson’s 461 consecutive games played streak.
It was the third-longest active streak in the NBA behind Clippers center DeAndre Jordan and Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson.
Lillard told reporters in Miami that he would play. Evidently that plan has been scratched and the plantar fasciitis issue in his left foot must be causing him more trouble than he’s leading on, which isn’t uncommon for Lillard who plays through multiple injuries at a time.
Lillard’s durability is a point of pride for him and one of the biggest reasons he’s been an All-Star for multiple seasons.
So far this season, Lillard is averaging 24.6 points per game, 6.8 assists and 36 percent shooting from long range. Only Lillard and Steph Curry are averaging 22 points per game, six assists and 36 percent shooting in the league. Lillard appeared to turn an ankle in the team’s loss to Oklahoma City and then he appeared to be injured again in Sunday’s loss to the Heat.
Lillard came close to ending the streak earlier this season after suffering from some food poisoning in Los Angeles and had to leave a game against the Clippers early in the 2nd half to go to the locker room.
McCollum also appeared to be hobbled in Sunday’s loss to Miami and has been diagnosed with bilateral ankle sprains. The play that seemed to cause problems for McCollum was when Dwyane Wade undercut him in an attempt to steal the ball. McCollum jumped to avoid the collision but he was visibly shaken after the play.
McCollum has been Portland’s second leading scorer, averaging 20 points and just a hair under 4 assists per game on 40 percent shooting on 3-pointers. He has been one of the biggest stories for the Blazers this season and the other major reason why the Blazers have been better than people anticipated.
Monday will be the first time McCollum misses a game in the 2015-16 season.
After Monday’s game in Atlanta, the Blazers travel to New Orleans where they’ll wrap up their five-game road trip on Dec. 23.
