![\"Deni](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2255792464.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Deni Avdija is ailing right now.<\/p>\n
Things were looking up for the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> when they hit the road for a three-game Eastern Conference road trip last week.<\/p>\n Yet, the Blazers are heading home licking their wounds, and forward and breakout star Deni Avdija opened up about his and the team\u2019s struggles after they dropped their fourth straight game, 127-97, to the New York Knicks<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n Avdija, who ranks 13th in the NBA<\/a> in points per game (25.8) failed to top 20 points for the second straight game. He made just 4 of 14 field goals, scoring only 11 points, and went more than 30 minutes of game action between points. He had more turnovers than assists for the second straight game as well.<\/p>\n Deni Avdija Is Ailing<\/p>\n Avdija has been managing a lower-back injury, which has caused him to be inactive for five of Portland\u2019s past nine games. But after missing two straight games, a home loss to the Toronto Raptors<\/a> and the first road defeat in Boston, Avdija returned with underwhelming results in Washington and New York.<\/p>\n \u201cJust to be honest, I\u2019m just dealing with some stuff,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI have the competitive nature and [am] just trying to be there for my teammates and compete and do whatever I can, but it\u2019s something I\u2019ve got to figure out with myself, my teammates, my coaches.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nothing to worry about, but it\u2019s definitely something I\u2019m facing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Avdija was asked directly about his back and further admitted he was struggling.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t really say anything specific about my injury or what\u2019s going on,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI\u2019ll leave it to the medical staff. I\u2019m doing a good job of recovering and coming back, but I definitely, definitely don\u2019t feel fluid right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Advija also briefly went to the locker room right before halftime in New York and told reporters his hand went numb. But he did come back out and started the third quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt went completely numb,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI went to the locker room, and they checked on it and did a really good job, and I was ready to go for the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trail Blazers Are Going Through A Challenging Stretch<\/p>\n Members of the Blazers beat were debating whether Avdija should be shut down until the All-Star break \u2014 Portland has seven games left until the All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. The Israeli-born star finished fifth in the NBA in fan voting for the All-Star Game but has not secured a spot for the star-studded weekend in Inglewood.<\/p>\n Still, Avdija is hoping he and his team can turn things around before then, especially since the Blazers had gone 10-4 in their previous 14-game stretch before this recent downturn.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a rough road trip,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cSomething we can learn from and leave in the past, especially how we opened games. We\u2019ve got to take responsibility and just move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Avdija is confident the Blazers, who sit ninth in the West and are flirting with their first playoff berth since 2020-21, can right the ship.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody\u2019s feeling sorry for ourselves,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a good position. We worked hard to be in this position. We can\u2019t let it go right now.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tPat Pickens<\/a> is an experienced sports writer and media personality who has written for outlets like NHL.com, the Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today. He covers the NFL, NBA, NHL and NBA as a breaking news contributor at Heavy. More about Pat Pickens<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Blazers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Deni Avdija is ailing right now. Things were looking up for the Portland Trail Blazers when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-572352","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-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115988209975957494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572352","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=572352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}