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Portland Trail Blazers starting center Jusuf Nurkic will not play in Saturday’s game against the Detroit Pistons. The team announced on Friday that the big man would be sitting out for “injury management”.
Injury report: Jusuf Nurkic (injury management, right knee) and Zach Collins (left ankle stress fracture) are out for tomorrow’s game vs. Detroit.
— Casey Holdahl (@CHold) April 10, 2021
Nurkic fractured his leg in March of 2019 during a match-up against the Brooklyn Nets. He was able to return for the final 8 games of the 2019-2020 season. He fractured his wrist in the 12th game of the current season, missing two months of action before returning on March 26th against the Orlando Magic. The Detroit game will mark his second absence in eight contests since returning.
The Blazers are 11-7 with Nurkic in the lineup this year, 19-14 in his absence.
Nurkic has averaged 9.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game in 18 appearances with the Blazers this season, shooting 48.6% from the field while playing 22.2 minutes per game.
The Trail Blazers will take on the Pistons in the Moda Center on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 PM, Pacific.