:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69081203/usa_today_15838315.0.jpg)
Jusuf Nurkic will sit out with knee inflammation when the Portland Trail Blazers face the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night. This will mark the 33rd game the injury-plagued center will have missed in the 2020-21 regular season.
Jason Quick of The Athletic first tweeted the news.
Blazers announce Jusuf Nurkic is out for Tuesday’s game at Clippers because of right knee inflammation.
— Jason Quick (@jwquick) April 5, 2021
Nurkic played the first dozen games of the season before hitting the injured list with a fractured wrist. His return from that injury was delayed by calf issues. He has appeared in Portland’s last five games, averaging 8.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 19.6 minutes per game during that span. The Blazers are 4-1 since Nurkic returned.
Nurkic missed the latter part of the 2018-19 season and most of the 2019-20 season recovering from a badly fractured leg. In 5 seasons with the Trail Blazers he has averaged 14.6 points and 9.6 rebounds, shooting 50.5% from the field, playing 26.9 minutes per game. He has exceeded 70 appearances in a single season only twice in that span. One of those was the year which ended in the leg fracture.
Enes Kanter, Portland’s reserve center, has averaged 13.1 points and 12.8 rebounds in 29,8 minutes per game filling in for Nurkic as a starter this season.