{"id":952726,"date":"2026-10-31T04:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952726\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T04:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:38:13","slug":"ja-morants-renaissance-hits-speed-bump-at-the-worst-possible-time-for-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952726\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant\u2019s Renaissance Hits Speed Bump at the Worst Possible Time for Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beginning of the NBA season has had no shortage of injuries<\/a>. New Trail Blazers guard Ja Morant is the latest to join the list after the team announced<\/a> he sustained a hamstring injury Thursday night against the Grizzlies, which will keep him out for four weeks minimum.<\/p>\n

Morant\u2019s injury in his first game against his former team is particularly devastating. Not only was he just four games in to a fresh start, but also Portland was cooking and looked like a surprising team in the Western Conference. The Blazers have a logjam at guard, which could keep the team afloat without Morant, but already operating without Shaedon Sharpe<\/a>, the exciting offense takes a big hit.<\/p>\n

Memphis handed Portland its first loss of the season on Thursday night as the Grizzlies are one of the NBA\u2019s biggest early surprises in their own right. What looked like a clunky team has clicked early on in Portland, though, and Morant\u2019s injury takes a true scoring threat off the floor. Through four games, the Blazers have the third-best offensive rating across the NBA (120.3). They are taking care of the ball, too, with a 2.02 assist-to-turnover ratio. That\u2019s also near the top of the league.<\/p>\n

The former Grizzlies star guard has played a large part in Portland\u2019s early success. Before he was sidelined with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, Morant averaged 15.8 points and 5.5 assists to just 1.3 turnovers per game. He\u2019s hit 54.2% of his shots from the field and 42.1% of his 3.5 three-point attempts per game\u2014much better marks than any season he had in Memphis. It\u2019s an incredibly small sample size, but he began to thrive in Portland\u2019s offense with Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija giving him more room to operate. <\/p>\n

Morant was huge in a big win over the Lakers on Tuesday night with 23 points and four assists on a 9-for-13 night from the floor. He made two clutch midrange shots late in the game to give the Blazers a five-point lead before Lillard put the Lakers on ice with a big trey. Portland overcame a 41-point outburst from Luka Don\u010di\u0107 plus 26 more points from his backcourt partner Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n

NBA Cup Power Rankings: Which Team Has the Best Chance to Win In-Season Tournament?<\/a><\/p>\n

Defense remains the biggest question as a backcourt made up of Morant and Lillard makes Jrue Holiday come off the bench, but Toumani Camara on the perimeter along with Donovan Clingan near the rim made the combo feasible. Plus, the Blazers first four games showed their plan was to just score in bunches where opponents can\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Holiday slides into new coach Micah Nori\u2019s starting lineup fairly seamlessly. More Holiday minutes in place of Morant makes Portland a better defensive team instantly. He\u2019s not the scorer he once was, but he\u2019s still a high-level shooter who spaces the floor for Lillard and Avdija and gets buckets when you need him to. <\/p>\n

Scoot Henderson will get more minutes, too, and he could build off a strong season last year. Unfortunately, however, no matter who fills in has the same gravity that Morant does. Portland took a lot of heat over the summer<\/a> for making a move for the embattled guard in what was already a crowded group. The early returns were great, which makes the unfortunately timed injury a big problem for one of the NBA\u2019s most electric offenses and most exciting teams. <\/p>\n

NEXT: Why the NBA Has an Injury Problem, and How It Can Be Fixed<\/a><\/p>\n

If all goes well with Morant\u2019s recovery, he should be able to return around the 20-game mark which gives the Blazers plenty of time to right the ship if the offense sputters. Although he\u2019s dealt with a myriad of injuries throughout his career which was heightened over the past few seasons, the hamstring strain isn\u2019t a recurring issue. Hopefully for Portland, this is just a bump in the road. But that doesn\u2019t make Morant\u2019s untimely absence any less disappointing with how fun this team was over its first handful of games.<\/p>\n

PODCAST\u00a0\ud83c\udfa7: Listen to SI\u2019s NBA podcast,\u00a0Open Floor, below or on\u00a0Apple<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Spotify<\/a>. Watch the show on\u00a0SI\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beginning of the NBA season has had no shortage of injuries. New Trail Blazers guard Ja Morant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-952726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}