Trail Blazers star guard Shaedon Sharpe hasn’t played since Feb. 6 with a left calf strain. On Tuesday, the team announced that follow-up imaging revealed a stress reaction of the left fibula.
The worsened injury will keep Sharpe out for the foreseeable future as Portland appears primed to make an appearance in the Western Conference play-in tournament. Per the Blazers, he will be re-evaluated in approximately four-to-six weeks before beginning a progression to full basketball activity.
That means Sharpe will likely be out longer than the initial timetable for re-evaluation. With 24 games remaining on its schedule, the initial re-evaluation could come as late as early April with just a handful of games left in the regular season.
He’s having a career year in his fourth NBA season, averaging 21.4 points per game which is second on the Blazers behind first-time All-Star Deni Avdija. This year, Portland hopes to make the franchise’s first postseason appearance since the 2020-21 season. The Blazers are 28–30 and ninth place in the West, a half-game in front of the Clippers who currently own the final play-in spot.
Portland has a six-game cushion on the 11th-place Grizzlies, the first team out of the play-in field. The Blazers could move up in the standings, a task that has now become considerably more difficult with the extended absence for the team’s second-leading scorer. Currently, the Warriors are 2 1/2 games in front of the Blazers for the No. 8 spot.
The last team in the top six is the Timberwolves who are seven games in front of the Blazers. Portland’s most likely shot at the playoffs is through the play-in tournament and the organization has to remain afloat without the exciting young guard until further notice.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Trail Blazers Receive Disappointing Shaedon Sharpe Injury Update Amid Play-In Race.
