-
Tim BontempsESPN
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard will sit out of Sunday night’s scrimmage against the Toronto Raptors with inflammation in his left foot.
“He did have an X-ray,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said before the game. “The X-ray was negative. He does have some inflammation. I don’t expect it to be a long-term thing.
“Hopefully he will be able to play our last scrimmage game. But I think it’s a little bit on the bottom of his foot. I’m not quite sure about that, but I think it is.” Gary Trent Jr. took Lillard’s place in the starting lineup.
Portland’s final scrimmage takes place Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and its first appearance in the seeding games is Friday afternoon against the Memphis Grizzlies — a critical matchup in the race to secure the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Trail Blazers will enter the restart in ninth place in the West, 3.5 games behind the Grizzlies and just one percentage points ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans. If the ninth-place team is within 4 games of the eighth playoff spot at the end of the eight seeding games, a play-in tournament (in which the eighth seeded team needs to win one of two games, and the ninth-place team needs to win both) will take place for the eighth spot.
Lillard played 20 minutes in Thursday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers, finishing with four points and seven assists. For the season, Lillard — who made his fifth All-Star team and likely will earn his fifth All-NBA selection — averaged career highs of 28.9 points and 7.8 assists this season for Portland, and led the league by averaging 36.9 minutes per game.
Meanwhile, Hassan Whiteside, who sat out Thursday’s scrimmage with Achilles soreness, was back in the lineup for Portland, starting alongside fellow center Jusuf Nurkic in a massive Portland frontcourt. Both Whiteside and Zack Collins will be on 20-minute restrictions, Stotts said.
For Toronto, Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Marc Gasol would play after he sat out Friday’s win over Houston. He also said Pat McCaw will once again sit out with what he termed a “recurring issue” that the Raptors are working with McCaw on to see if he’s going to be able to play through it.