Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic put together a monster fantasy line in just 22 minutes of a 105-90 win over the Lakers. Nurkic was unstoppable in the paint, as he made all six shots he attempted en route to 15 points, adding 17 rebounds, which tied his season-high. The Bosnian big man chipped in three steals and a block. Nurkic has had some curious usage this year, as he has yet to play more than 30 minutes in a game, though it hasn't affected his stellar production. Nurkic has been a solid fantasy center, with averages of 11.5 points, 11.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game on 56.4 percent shooting from the field. He'll be a strong fantasy play on Monday against the Clippers, who have struggled against centers.

Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic was a beast in the paint during Friday's 111-92 win over the Clippers. Nurkic pulled down a season-high 17 rebounds, his fourth time in double figures on the boards, scoring 14 points with three assists. The big man also contributed some defensive stats, as he recorded a pair of steals and a block. Nurkic was in foul trouble, limiting him to just 23 minutes played, though he continues to do more with less this season. The Bosnian Beast continues to be a per-36 minutes monster, as evidenced by his 18.6 points, 17.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and 0.9 blocks.

Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic delivered one of his better all-around games of the young season in Wednesday's win over the Grizzlies. Nurkic excelled on both ends, scoring 17 points with eight boards while draining 5 of 8 free throws. The big man also totaled three steals and a block on the other end of the floor. Nurkic is playing only 25.3 minutes per game but should continue to be a strong fantasy asset- given his strong contributions in points, field-goal percentage, rebounding, and steals and blocks.

Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic is coming off a horrible 2020 campaign where he only played 37 games. He saw a major regression in numbers, but things are looking up for the big man. Enes Kanter took away quite a bit of his value, but Nurkic should be able to see around 30 minutes with Kanter leaving. Cody Zeller and Larry Nance Jr. are on the roster, but shouldn't get in the way of Nurkic. The biggest problem has been his health. Although, it sounds like new head coach Chauncey Billups wants to get Nurkic more involved on both sides of the court. It certainly sounds like he could be in for a career year, assuming Nurkic can stay on the court.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — No team in the NBA has a longer active streak of postseason appearances than the Portland Trail Blazers, who have gotten there in each of the last eight seasons. That wasn’t enough to save Terry Stotts, and Portland will have a new coach next season. The Trail Blazers and Stotts parted ways Friday, ending a nine-year run that saw the team good enough to get to the playoffs — but not good enough to get past the first round in four of the last five seasons. “I have the utmost respect for Terry and what he has accomplished these past nine seasons,” Blazers President Neil Olshey said. “This was a difficult decision on both a personal and professional level but it’s in the best interest of the franchise to move in another direction. “Terry will always hold a special place in the Trail Blazer family and the Portland community. We relied on the integrity, professionalism and consistency he brought to the job every day and we wish he and Jan nothing but the best.” It was being... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — No team in the NBA has a longer active streak of postseason appearances than the Portland Trail Blazers, who have gotten there in each of the last eight seasons. That wasn’t enough to save Terry Stotts, and Portland will have a new coach next season. The Trail Blazers and Stotts parted ways Friday, ending a nine-year run that saw the team good enough to get to the playoffs — but not good enough to get past the first round in four of the last five seasons. “I have the utmost respect for Terry and what he has accomplished these past nine seasons,” Blazers President Neil Olshey said. “This was a difficult decision on both a personal and professional level but it’s in the best interest of the franchise to move in another direction. “Terry will always hold a special place in the Trail Blazer family and the Portland community. We relied on the integrity, professionalism and consistency he brought to the job every day and we wish he and Jan nothing but the best.” It was being... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — After a second straight first-round playoff exit, it has become clear the Portland Trail Blazers need more than just the heroics of Damian Lillard. It is all but certain the Blazers will look different next season. Even Lillard fueled speculation about his own future in Portland following the elimination loss to the Denver Nuggets. He posted a photo of himself in street clothes at the Moda Center. The caption that he added quoted the late rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle. “How long should I stay dedicated?” he wrote. “How long til opportunity meet preparation?” Portland finished the regular season 42-30 and earned the sixth seed in the Western Conference. It was the team's eighth straight trip to the playoffs, the longest active streak in the league. Portland was riding momentum, having won 10 of its final 12 regular-season games. The Blazers were also healthy, with both big man Jusuf Nurkic and guard CJ McCollum back from extended absences because of injuries. But... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum has a hairline fracture in his left foot, the team said. McCollum will wear a walking boot and be reevaluated in four weeks. He was injured Saturday during a game against the Atlanta Hawks. McCollum was averaging a career-best 26.7 points, as well as five assists, per game when he got injured. McCollum's injury is the latest to befall the Blazers. Center Jusuf Nurkic fractured his wrist during a game last week against the Indiana Pacers and is out indefinitely. In his eighth NBA season, McCollum was first thought to have a sprain but the team said additional imaging showed a hairline fracture to the lateral cuneiform. It was unclear when he was injured but it appeared that Atlanta's Clint Capela stepped on his foot following a layup in the opening quarter. The Blazers went on to win the game 112-106. Rodney Hood took McCollum's place in Monday's game against the San Antonio Spurs, finishing with 21 points in Portland's 125-104 loss. Nurkic was averaging 9.8 points and 7.7. assists before he was injured. Enes Kanter has started in his absence. The Blazers are also missing forward Zach Collins, who is expected to be out several months after ankle surgery in December. ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic fractured his right wrist Thursday night during a game against the Indiana Pacers. Nurkic could be seen holding the wrist after swiping at the ball in the third quarter, and he fell to the floor after contact under Indiana's basket. At a timeout he went to to the locker room and did not return. The 7-foot-0 Bosnian was averaging 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds heading into the game. Nurkic missed much of the first half of last season after breaking his left leg in a game in March 2019. He returned to the team to play in the the bubble in Orlando, Florida, after the season was put on hold because of coronavirus. "He had a long road back from his other injury," coach Terry Stotts said. “He had a rough start of the season, it looked like he was getting back on track. Obviously this is a big setback for him and for us.” Stotts said Nurkic was in a splint after the game. The Blazers were already without forward/center Zach Collins indefinitely after ankle surgery at the end of December.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic fractured his right wrist Thursday night during a game against the Indiana Pacers. Nurkic could be seen holding the wrist after swiping at the ball in the third quarter, and he fell to the floor after contact under Indiana's basket. At a timeout he went to to the locker room and did not return. The 7-foot-0 Bosnian was averaging 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds heading into the game against the Pacers.

The Portland Trail Blazers dealt with injuries all season, and the the loss of their biggest star topped it off in the playoffs.While the year was unusual for all of sports because of coronavirus, the Trail Blazers made it to the NBA playoffs for the seventh straight season. Upstart Portland was knocked out of the first round by the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in five games. “It was an interesting season with a lot of different obstacles that we faced. We signed Hall of Famer (Carmelo Anthony), we had coronavirus hit, so many things going on around the world with social injustice, protesting, all those things," guard CJ McCollum said. "We had some games postponed, came back, more injuries. But all in all I think we fought and gave ourselves a chance."All-Star guard Damian Lillard had already departed the so-called bubble in Florida with a right knee injury when Portland took the floor for the elimination game Sunday night. While the Blazers mounted a scrappy effort against the Lakers,... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — In a crammed schedule after the NBA's restart, rest has been hard to find.Teams played eight games in two weeks after play resumed on July 30, then jumped into the postseason. Midway through the first round, fatigue might start to show.That's why wrapping up series quickly, almost always a good thing, might be even more important this year. Miami has its chance. The Lakers and Bucks look like they still might.And Houston might regret if it let its opportunity get away.After wasting a late lead and dropping Game 3 in overtime, the Rockets look to regain control of their series against Oklahoma City when the teams meet Monday.“Playoffs, you've got some adversity somewhere and this is adversity,” Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said. “Now we've got to come out, make another statement, so that's what we're going to do.”Houston had a five-point lead with under a minute remaining in regulation Saturday, before the Thunder rallied for a 119-107 victory in overtime that... [More]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — CJ McCollum scored 33 points, teaming with Damian Lillard for 11 of Portland's 16 in overtime, and the Trail Blazers pulled out a desperately needed victory to resume their season by beating the Memphis Grizzlies 140-135 on Friday.Lillard finished with 29 points and nine assists as the Trail Blazers boosted their hopes for a seventh consecutive playoff appearance. Carmelo Anthony added 21 points as Portland moved within 2 1/2 games of the Grizzlies for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference.“Everybody knew how important that game was," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “This is playoff basketball from us and we have that pressure and you can’t shy away from it.”McCollum started fast, scoring 19 points in the first half, and finished strong with two crucial 3-pointers in overtime. The first one to open the extra period gave Portland the lead for good, and he added six assists.Jaren Jackson Jr. had 33 points and rookie Ja Morant added 22 points and 11 assists... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Grieving the death of a cousin and missing his mother, Damian Lillard struggled emotionally after the NBA shut down because of the coronavirus. But he also found inspiration in his activism for Black Lives Matter and his flourishing music career. The Trail Blazers were just out of the playoff picture, sitting ninth in the Western Conference standings on March 11 when the league was shuttered. The team will be among 22 that will depart next week for Orlando as part of the re-start. Portland will have eight games to secure a playoff berth, starting on July 31 with Memphis. “We don’t have time to ease our way in, we don't have time to try and figure stuff out, we’ve got to come in assertive and aggressive and just go after it,” he said. “And if we fail, we fail, but we gotta at least come out there with that mentality of we don’t have time to kind of ease into it.”Lillard welcomes the chance to resume playing after a difficult few months. He admittedly had no idea how... [More]

Portland guard Damian Lillard was in the gym a few days ago and took notice of what injured Trail Blazers big men Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins were doing during their individual workouts.That’s when he realized a bright side of the NBA’s coronavirus shutdown.The injured guys weren’t injured anymore.Plenty of aches and pains around the NBA have healed in the almost-four-month span since the league had to suspend its season because of the pandemic, which means the 22 teams that will be arriving at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida next week should be coming in with mostly healthy rosters.Keeping players healthy once they get to Disney will be another challenge, as workloads ramp up quickly for the July 30 resumption of games — but, at least at the start of camps for the resumed season, rosters will be deeper than they were when the league shut down on March 11.“I hate to even use that term, like a ‘silver lining’ came out of this because this is something that nobody ever predicted,”... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — With a big night against Golden State, Damian Lillard signaled that he's asserting himself at a crucial point of the Trail Blazers' season. And where Lillard goes, the Blazers tend to follow. “There comes a time in the season where everybody's tired, everybody's worn out, everybody's physically and mentally drained," he said. "The players got to go out there and make their minds up, are we going to do this or not? And I think we're just, as a team, getting closer to that time. We've got to leave it all out there. We've got to go take it.”Lillard had a franchise-best 61 points — including 11 3-pointers — this week in Portland's 129-124 overtime victory over the Warriors.It was the most points for a player in the NBA this season, and it broke Lillard's own franchise record of 60 points set earlier this season against Brooklyn. Afterward, a flood of admirers ranging from reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Luka Doncic to Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson recognized... [More]

Once Russell Westbrook headed to Houston, the Oklahoma City Thunder were supposed to be headed toward a rebuild.The team Westbrook returns to face this week doesn’t look like a team headed for the lottery. It’s playing like one Westbrook might see again in the postseason.The Thunder welcome back their former point guard Thursday, with both doing just fine since going their separate ways last summer.That’s not a surprise for Westbrook, given that he was sent to join former MVP — and one-time Oklahoma City teammate — James Harden on a high-scoring contender. He has scored 20 or more points in 12 straight games, with three straight of at least 30 late last month, and averaged 27.8 in that span to raise his average to 24.1.He said his return would be emotional because of how much Oklahoma City and the organization meant to him, but he didn't want to detail much leading into it. “I don’t want to get that much into before the game and on and on, but after the game we can discuss whatever you... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Portland Trail Blazers have waived center Pau Gasol but his career with the team may not be over.Gasol, who never played in a game with the Blazers, announced on social media Wednesday that the team had released him. In a video he posted, Gasol said he is still recovering from surgery on his left foot in May.“I underwent surgery in hopes that it would expedite my return, but unfortunately in the last few days we have assessed that my recovery is going to take longer than we had originally hoped for,” he said.Gasol said he plans to remain in Portland to continue his rehabilitation, and he is discussing a new role with the Trail Blazers.“I have the same excitement and passion for the game of basketball that I had when I first started playing, and I will work as hard as I can on my recovery with a clear goal in mind: To get healthy in order to continue to play the game that I love,” Gasol said.Gasol signed with the Blazers in the offseason as a free agent.He played... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Carmelo Anthony is now with the Portland Trail Blazers and starting over with jersey No. 00.Word that the 10-time All-Star had joined the team broke Thursday night, but the agreement was not formalized until Tuesday when he signed a nonguaranteed contract that goes through January. If he stays, the contract becomes guaranteed for the rest of the season.Anthony was in the starting lineup for the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night in New Orleans.Anthony hasn’t played since a 10-game stint with the Houston Rockets ended a little more than a year ago. But the Blazers hope there is enough game left in the 35-year-old forward to help them overcome a 5-9 start.“Carmelo is an established star in this league that will provide a respected presence in our locker room and a skill set at a position of need on the floor,” Neil Olshey, Portland’s president of basketball operations, said in a statement.Anthony struggled at the end of his recent stops in Oklahoma City and Houston following... [More]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Carmelo Anthony is now with the Portland Trail Blazers and starting over with jersey No. 00.Word that the 10-time All-Star had joined the team broke Thursday night, but the agreement was not formalized until Tuesday when he signed a nonguaranteed contract that goes through January. If he stays, the contract becomes guaranteed for the rest of the season.It was not immediately clear when he would start practicing or playing with the team. Portland was at New Orleans on Tuesday night.Anthony hasn’t played since a 10-game stint with the Houston Rockets ended a little more than a year ago. But the Blazers hope there is enough game left in the 35-year-old forward to help them overcome a 5-9 start.“Carmelo is an established star in this league that will provide a respected presence in our locker room and a skill set at a position of need on the floor,” Neil Olshey, Portland’s president of basketball operations, said in a statement.Anthony struggled at the end of his recent... [More]