Portland Trail Blazers had a big victory over the Dallas Mavericks that helps Portland in the Western Conference playoff standings.
What happened to the team in the process though, may not be worth the victory in the long run.
Blazers starting shooting guard Wesley Matthews suffered a torn left achilles in Portland’s win. Matthews was injured in the third quarter of Thursday night’s victory over the Mavericks at the Moda Center. Matthews immediately fell to the floor upon making a move to the basket, very reminiscent of Kobe Bryant’s injury a few years ago.
Following from Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.
Portland’s Wesley Matthews suffered a left torn Achilles tendon and will miss the rest of season, a league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) March 6, 2015
Horrible news for the Blazers who are pushing heavy for the playoffs and currently sit third in the west. The loss of Matthews is huge blow to the Blazers’ hopes of a Western Conference or NBA title due to Matthews durability, 3-point shooting and great defense.
It’s particularly horrible for Matthews who’s set to become a free agent this summer and was expected to command a pretty significant deal this summer. Matthews was once considered an NBA ironman. He had a streak of 250 consecutive games played which ended on Dec. 10, 2012, only to start a second streak of 142 games that is now over.
Matthews will presumably be replaced in the starting lineup by recently acquired Arron Afflalo, who has been coming off the bench since he was sent to Portland from the Denver Nuggets. C.J. McCollum will likely play a more significant role coming off Portland’s bench to extend the rotation.
