Three important pieces of the Portland Trail Blazers rotation have had their injury designations adjusted Sunday.
Deni Avdija has been upgraded to questionable, while Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant have been downgraded to doubtful for Sunday night’s matchup at the Sacramento Kings.
Avdija, who tweaked his back last Sunday in the final two minutes of a loss to the New York Knicks, has missed the last three games with a lower back strain.
The budding All-Star forward participated in pregame workouts before the Blazers’ last two games — wins over the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers — and did not reveal any noticeable discomfort.
“He’s still recovering …” Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter before the Blazers’ win over the Lakers. “It’s just not 100% like the way we want. He’s still feeling it a little bit and you just want to be sure because it’s tricky (with his) his injury and also the way he plays. He plays with a lot of contact. He’s physical. He goes through the pain and hits the floor. So we’ve got to be sure that he’s 100% able to come and play”
Holiday and Grant, meanwhile, have returned over the last week after enduring extended injury absences.
Holiday has played in the last three games after missing more than eight weeks with a right calf strain and Grant has played in the last two games after missing a month with left Achilles tendonitis.
The duo has been listed as doubtful for injury management.
When asked Saturday whether Holiday and Grant had been cleared to play in back-to-backs, Splitter said the team needed to “see how they feel after the (Lakers) game.”
In addition to the three aforementioned status updates, there was another notable player added to the Blazers’ injury report: Robert Williams III.
The backup center, who has not played in back-to-backs this season, is listed as doubtful with left knee injury management.
