Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard will not play the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday due to an abdominal strain, adding to the team’s growing list of injuries.
Lillard, the NBA’s third-leading scorer, said he considered staying out of Portland’s previous game Tuesday against the Wizards, saying he “felt like I could barely move to start the game.”
The NBA is in full swing! Watch all the action from the 2020-21 season streaming on ESPN Deportes, ESPN, ESPN3, ABC and the ESPN app.
Friday February 5th• Raptors and Nets, 7:30 pm ET
• Celtics in Clippers, 10 pm ET
Saturday February 6
• Warriors and Mavericks, 8:30 pm ET
Lillard was initially listed as questionable against Philadelphia in the NBA’s official injury report, but the Blazers ruled him out Thursday afternoon.
Portland starters CJ McCollum (foot), Jusuf Nurkic (wrist) and Derrick Jones Jr. (foot) are out with long-term injuries, and swingman Nassir Little (knee) was also ruled Thursday against the Sixers, leaders of the Eastern Conference.
Lillard scored 32 points Tuesday to lead Portland to a 132-121 victory at Washington. He said after the game that he was “pushing and fighting” throughout the game because “he knew how important this was to our season.”
The 30-year-old Lillard is averaging 29.1 points and 7.3 assists, the eighth-best in the NBA, in 20 games this season.
