honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 23, 2010

NBA: Another game, another Trail Blazer injured


Advertiser Staff

At this rate, the Portland Trail Blazers will have more players in street clothes than in uniforms for their games.

The ridiculously depleted Blazers, who just lost all-star guard Brandon Roy for at least four games with a hamstring injury, lost guard Jerryd Bayless to a badly sprained left ankle suffered Friday in a 98-95 overtime loss at Boston.
Portland plays at Detroit Saturday.
All five starters from last year's playoff team have been injured. In all, the Blazers top nine players have suffered injuries.
Last year's starters — Steve Blake (pneumonia), Roy, Joel Pryzbilla (knee), LaMarcus Aldridge (ankle) and Nicolas Batum (shoulder) — all have been injured, along with top substitutes, Travis Outlaw (foot) and Rudy Fernandez (back). Greg Oden, who replaced Pryzbilla as starting center this season, is out for the year with knee injury, as is Pryzbilla.
Outlaw has been out since early in the season after breaking his foot. Fernandez has returned after missing a dozen or so games after back surgery. Batum hasn't played a game this season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Even rookies Jeff Pendergraph (hip surgery) and Patty Mills (foot surgery) have missed extended time.
Playing extended minutes, Roy, who admitted his hamstring hadn't recovered from last year, was sent to Seattle to rehab his injury.
Now, Bayless, who replaced Roy, is on the injured list.
One of the few players who haven't been hit by the plague of injuries is Martell Webster, who actually missed all but a few minutes of last season with a broken foot.
The Trail Blazers have relied on 16-year veteran Juwan Howard, who has been forced to play center, and veteran Andre Miller, who signed on as a free agent this season.
They have been forced to use rookies Pendergraph and Dante Cunningham to spell players.