{"id":347333,"date":"2025-12-14T00:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/347333\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T00:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:39:10","slug":"trail-blazers-injuries-2-centers-return-to-practice-1-point-guard-nearing-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/347333\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers injuries: 2 centers return to practice, 1 point guard nearing return"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUALATIN \u2014 There was some good news and some almost good news for the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A pair of centers returned to practice and a point guard participated in portions of practice, offering hope that a team decimated by injuries is growing healthier. <\/p>\n

Center Donovan Clingan<\/a>, who has missed the last three games with a left leg contusion, and Robert Williams III<\/a>, who has missed three of the last four games because of illness and left knee management, returned to practice and acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> said both are expected to play Sunday when the Blazers host the Golden State Warriors. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jrue Holiday<\/a>, who has not played since Nov. 14 because of a right calf strain, inched closer to a full return by participating in portions of Saturday\u2019s practice. The veteran point guard\u2019s status for Sunday is not certain, but if his calf responds well to the increased workload it\u2019s possible he could return as early as next week.<\/p>\n

After hosting the Warriors, the Blazers (9-16) don\u2019t play again until Thursday against the Sacramento Kings, giving Holiday multiple days to continue his recovery. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cI hope we get a couple guys back and we can play healthier to approach the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 October mojo<\/a> has been ruined by a flood of injuries and illnesses, which have come to define the season. Ten different players have missed a combined 127 games.<\/p>\n

Things reached perhaps the lowest point Thursday, when the Blazers suffered a 143-120 defeat at the New Orleans Pelicans, who entered the game riding a seven-game losing streak and sporting the worst record in the NBA. Portland not only played without a natural point guard \u2014 which it has done for the last 13 games \u2014 but also without a traditional center, as Clingan, Williams and Yang Hansen were all sidelined.<\/p>\n

The Blazers have lost 11 of their last 14 games. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my God \u2014 yeah,\u201d forward Deni Avdija<\/a> said, when asked if it was nice to see injured teammates return to the practice court. \u201cThey\u2019re all very missed. We need them. I can\u2019t stress it enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUALATIN \u2014 There was some good news and some almost good news for the Portland Trail Blazers on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,1063,99],"class_list":["post-347333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}