Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum has avoided a major injury, with an MRI revealing that he suffered a popliteus strain in his left knee against the Spurs on Saturday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
McCollum will be re-evaluated in one week, Wojnarowski reports.
“God looked out for me,” McCollum told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). “Could’ve been a lot worse.”
McCollum, 27, exited Saturday’s game early after landing awkwardly on his knee. He appeared to be in significant pain, immediately being helped to the locker room and sending a scare throughout the Blazers organization. Initial X-rays were negative after the game.
McCollum has averaged 21.3 points, four rebounds and 2.9 assists in 68 contests this season, shooting 46% from the field and 38% from 3-point range. He’s in his sixth straight season with the team since being drafted 10th overall in 2013.
The Blazers are gearing up to make a playoff run behind the likes of McCollum, Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic and others, holding the fourth-best record in the West at 42-27 with less than a month remaining in the regular season.
Hope the kid is ready for the playoffs; but Kevin Garnett missed the entire post-season in 2009 with a popliteus strain. We shall see …
True but KG was 33 years old and had bone spurs in that same knee. For McCollum, as far as we know, it’s isolated to the popliteus. Which would be anywhere from 2-6 weeks barring any setbacks.
Both of their injuries happened at the same point in the season, mid-to-late March. But Garnett initially got hurt that February and re-injured himself when he came back in March. I’d assume the Blazers staff won’t bring him back until he’s pain-free and I doubt it will take as long as it did with Garnett. In the meantime though, thank goodness Neil Olshey traded for Rodney Hood and signed Seth Curry!