LaMarcus Aldridge Out Indefinitely

Credit: Bruce Ely/ The Oregonian/OregonLive

Portland Trail Blazers’ star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge did not travel with the team to Phoenix, where they played the Suns. Aldridge hurt his left-thumb Monday during a game against the Sacramento Kings.  The injury occurred in the second quarter where Aldridge reached to contest a DeMarcus Cousins drive, which then resulted in his thumb bending back the wrong way.

Even though Aldridge did not return to the game after that, the team found a way to sneak out a 98-95 victory. Initial X-rays have came out negative but the team is still being cautious with their leading scorer at 23.2 points per game.

“We’ll see what happens,” Head Coach Terry Stotts said. “I don’t want to rush to judgment on anything right now.”  The team has not set a timetable on his return, the 6’11 power-forward will have an MRI later on this week.

The Trail Blazers are currently second in the Western Conference at 31-1 and are 3-1 without Aldridge. They were 8-5 without him last season.

Even though it seems like the team still succeeds without their leading scorer and rebounder, the Western Conference is the toughest it has ever been and any team can drop down in the standings if they play a bad stretch of basketball.  Portland hopes history doesn’t repeat itself from last season where they began the season 22-4 and in first place in the West. The team then stumbled in the second half of the season where they finished 54-28 and needed five straight wins to finish the season to earn the fifth seed.