Trail Blazers Roster & Starting Lineup Without Jusuf Nurkic vs. Bulls

Portland Trail Blazers star center Jusuf Nurkic broke his leg Monday night, ending the best year of his career and now the team has to find a way to move on, starting with a visit to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.

Jusuf Nurkic jumped to try to grab a rebound in the second overtime of Monday’s game against the Nets and he came down awkwardly and had season-ending compound fractures to his left tibia and fibula, the same injury Paul George suffered to his right leg when playing for Team USA in 2014.

Everyone in the arena was shocked and the fans eventually began chanting Nurkic’s name. The Trail Blazers won 148-144 but the game seemed like a loss for them.

Nurkic had 32 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals in the victory and he was in the middle of the best season of his career, averaging 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 blocks in 27.4 minutes over 72 games.

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Trail Blazers Roster & Starting Lineup vs. Bulls

*Notates expected starter

C: Enes Kanter*, Meyers Leonard
PF: Al-Farouq Aminu*, Zach Collins
SF: Maurice Harkless*, Rodney Hood
SG: Jake Layman*, Seth Curry, Anfernee Simons
PG: Damian Lillard*, Evan Turner

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Nurkic underwent his season-ending surgery on Tuesday and his compound fractures left no nerve or muscle damage in his leg. The Trail Blazers then confirmed that he will make a full recovery.

With Nurkic out, Enes Kanter will likely take his spot in the starting lineup and him, Collins and Leonard will have to replace Nurkic’s production. Collins and Leonard should get more playing time and they have to make the most of this opportunity.

The Trail Blazers are playing extremely well, winning seven of their last eight games, including four straight but losing Nurkic hurts tremendously, they’re already without their second-leading scorer CJ McCollum, who left the March 16 game against the Spurs early as a result of a knee injury and he could miss the rest of the regular season.

Portland is tied with Houston for third place in the Western Conference and the Clippers are just two games behind them, so they don’t want to lose ground in this close playoff race.

Damian Lillard has to take over this game and carry the Trail Blazers and Rodney Hood has to step up as a secondary scorer. Enes Kanter, Seth Curry and Jake Layman can also assume that role.

The Bulls are coming off a 112-103 road loss against the Raptors on Tuesday and they’re even more depleted than the Trail Blazers, as they could be without Zach LaVine, Otto Porter and Kris Dunn for this game. These two teams met on January 9 and the Trail Blazers won 124-112.

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