{"id":549900,"date":"2026-01-21T00:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549900\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T00:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T00:20:14","slug":"trail-blazers-deni-avdija-injury-update-reaching-500-scoot-henderson-sprints-practice-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/549900\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers’ Deni Avdija injury update, reaching .500, Scoot Henderson sprints: Practice notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUALATIN \u2014 The Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> are enjoying a rarity in the middle of the unrelenting NBA schedule:<\/p>\n

A three-day break from games. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s only the fourth time over the first three months of the season the Blazers have been afforded more than two days off, which allowed acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> to hold a rare practice. Here are a few notes from Tuesday\u2019s workout at the practice facility in Tualatin:<\/p>\n

Avdija\u2019s health, sleeping habits and All-Star voting thoughts<\/p>\n

Deni Avdija<\/a> returned after a three-game injury absence on Sunday, playing 32 dominant minutes<\/a> in a 117-110 win at the Sacramento Kings. He finished with 30 points, eight assists and eight rebounds, fueling the Blazers\u2019 10th win in the last 13 games and easing concerns that his ailment \u2014 a strained lower back \u2014 would evolve into a long-term problem.<\/p>\n

The news was even better two days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt pretty solid, physically,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cMy back was a little sore, just because I didn\u2019t play for a week. I had to get my rhythm back a little bit in some places. In, like, crunch time, I feel like I was a little sloppy. But other than that, I feel like I\u2019m in a good place. The medical and coaching staff did a great job and I\u2019m ready to continue playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sixth-year forward said he\u2019s doing a variety of things behind the scenes to keep his back limber, including extra stretching and proper vitamin consumption, but the biggest change is coming in an unexpected place: his bed. Avdija has been forced to adjust his sleeping position. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a stomach sleeper,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

When someone mentioned that stomach sleeping was horrible for one\u2019s back, Avdija chuckled. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know, but that\u2019s how I\u2019ve slept my whole life,\u201d he said. \u201cI need it to change for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Avdija can\u2019t change is his status as an NBA All-Star game starter. He fell just short of that goal<\/a> Monday, earning the seventh-most votes in the Western Conference on the weighted ballots of fans, coaches and players. Avdija did score the fifth-most votes from fans, however, which provided a nice consolation prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are really great players with big names in the league,\u201d said Avdija, who is averaging 26.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists this season. \u201cThey\u2019ve done a lot of good things. I\u2019m just focusing on winning and being a good teammate. Whatever is going to come with it, is going to come with it. Obviously I wanted to be a starter, but it\u2019s all good. <\/p>\n

\u201cShout out to the fans for showing me a lot of love. I wasn\u2019t expecting that amount of votes, but it really warms up my heart to see how much fans and how much support I get around the world. I\u2019m just going to continue representing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaching .500<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 win over the Kings didn\u2019t merely continue their red-hot play \u2014 it also improved their record to 22-22.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time since Nov. 14, when the Blazers were 6-6, they\u2019ve been at .500 or better.<\/p>\n

Does it matter?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI believe we\u2019re better than 500. We\u2019ve had a lot of injuries, a lot of incidents throughout the season, and we didn\u2019t have an easy schedule. But \u2026 nobody cares. And we figured it out, we stayed strong, we stayed together, and that\u2019s what matters. I\u2019m very proud of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blazers\u2019 impressive 12-game run has featured resume-building wins over Boston, San Antonio, Houston (twice) and the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to win,\u201d Blazers center Donovan Clingan<\/a> said. \u201cAnd whatever it takes to win, I\u2019m going to go out there and do. And when we\u2019re winning, it brings a lot of spirit into the locker room. I feel like winning just changes the vibe around the whole organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoot sprints<\/p>\n

Point guard Scoot Henderson<\/a> has not played in a game this season and there does not appear to be a plan for him to return anytime soon. <\/p>\n

But there was a notable sight Tuesday in Tualatin: Henderson running full-court sprints after practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is progressing,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cHe\u2019s getting better. I understand. Everybody\u2019s a little bit frustrated about this, but it\u2019s a tough injury. It\u2019s (one) where people tend to have a second injury, so we\u2019ve got to be careful with him. He\u2019s a big part of our franchise. We\u2019ve got to protect him. And I think we\u2019re doing the right thing and he\u2019s feeling better day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler reaction<\/p>\n

The Golden State Warriors<\/a> on Tuesday were dealt a brutal blow when All-Star forward Jimmy Butler was diagnosed with a season-ending torn right anterior cruciate ligament. <\/p>\n

The Warriors (25-19) have been even hotter than the Blazers lately, winning 12 of their last 16 games. But the injury to Butler, who is averaging 20.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists, is potentially debilitating for an aging team and it just so happens that Golden State is one spot ahead of the Blazers in the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough,\u201d Splitter said of the injury. \u201cI was watching the game. Just feel for him \u2026 a guy that puts so much work into his game and trying to help Golden State. So I feel bad. I know him well; good player, great friend.”<\/p>\n

Added Clingan: \u201cObviously, you never want to see something like that … someone like Jimmy going down obviously sucks. We\u2019re here to win and we\u2019re here to do something special, so we\u2019re just going to keep attacking every game with the same mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TUALATIN \u2014 The Portland Trail Blazers are enjoying a rarity in the middle of the unrelenting NBA schedule:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,980,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-549900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-deni-avdija","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115930229882491092","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}