The Portland Trail Blazers rewarded those that put great faith in them despite being the 8-seed (like Charles Barkley) by beating the Lakers in a thrilling Game 1 that saw Damian Lillard do Dame things in the closing stretch to pull away from L.A.
The question now facing the Blazers is whether they can keep it going, particularly on defense where they were the beneficiaries of some horrific shooting from the Lakers role players — although, making those guys take shots is by design. Making this challenge more difficult is the news that arrived for Portland on Wednesday, as they learned Zach Collins, who sat out Game 1 is likely out for Games 2-4 as well with a Malleolar stress reaction in his ankle after having an MRI.
MRI confirms a “left ankle Malleolar stress reaction” for Zach Collins. He’s out for Game 2 and will be reevaluate in a week, which means Games 3 and 4 are likely out as well.
— Casey Holdahl (@CHold) August 19, 2020
Collins will be re-evaluated in a week, but with the Blazers playing three games before then, it stands to reason he won’t be available until Game 5 at best. Wenyen Gabriel got the start for Collins in the opener and the Blazers had some great success deploying their two center lineup of Jusuf Nurkic and Hassan Whiteside when the Lakers went big with Dwight Howard or JaVale McGee. However, that does create some spacing problems on offense for Portland and Collins’ absence further shortens an already tight rotation at the four-spot.