Blazers consider "freezing" Damian Lillard, closing the All-Star defender's terrible season

Over the past few days, a rumor has surfaced that Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard will decide to retire from the rest of the Regular Season because the team is no longer able to compete for a ticket to the play-in series. or the Playoffs.

This information has just been partly confirmed when reputable journalist Shams Charania wrote on The Athletic that: "The team is leaning more towards the possibility of 'freezing' Damian Lillard until the end of the season."

This option is seriously considered because Lillard is suffering from a minor calf injury and the team is 3.5 games away from the play-in.

This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise. It only makes fans of Damian Lillard in particular and Portland Trail Blazers in general feel sad.

Dame personally shared about this issue after the 117-102 defeat to the LA Clippers, the Blazers' 6th loss in a row:

“When we look around, other teams are competing fiercely and gradually creating a gap in terms of win-loss record, but we lose many matches in a row.

We are already far behind in the race to 10th place in the standings and there are not many chances left, unless the team can win all the games between now and the end of the Regular Season.

I am very passionate about basketball, I want to go out on the court and compete with my teammates to the best of my ability. But maybe it's time for me to put aside my will to fight and my desire to win."

Considering Damian Lillard to retire early is considered a wise decision to ensure the health of this All-Star defender, to avoid him getting more serious injuries.

Last season, Lillard had to miss a large number of games because of an abdominal muscle injury, requiring surgery. This season, Dame suffered a calf strain at the end of October but was not absent for too long.

With this injury history plus a 13th place in the West, the Portland Trail Blazers have no reason to risk Damian Lillard.

Although the overall record is not good with only 32 wins in 73 matches, Damian Lillard has had an extremely impressive season in terms of personal stats. He has 33 games scoring at least 30 points this season, averaging 32.2 points and 7.3 assists.

In December, Dame became the top scorer in the history of the Portland Trail Blazers. Less than a month later, he hit the season-high milestone with a 60-point match.

However, all could not compare with Lillard's career-high performance of 71 points against the Houston Rockets. This is currently the match with the most points of the season by a player to date.