Portland Trail Blazers center Robert Williams III has been upgraded to questionable to play versus the Utah Jazz on Saturday afternoon due to left knee injury management, the team announced Friday.
Williams had been initially designated as doubtful to play Thursday against the Memphis Grizzlies, before being ruled out shortly before tip-off of Portland’s 123-104 loss. During the pregame press conference that night, Blazers head coach Micah Nori explained to reporters that Williams’ unavailability
was partly due to the team’s usual precautionary approach with his health. But he also said Williams was experiencing some knee soreness, and the team wanted to jump out ahead of it with the frequency of games picking up shortly.
“We’ve got a lot coming, as far as games go, in a row — not back-to-backs but every other day it seems like [we have a game],” Nori said. “It’s not anything major, but it’s just more precautionary, and then hopefully for the road trip, knock on wood, he’ll be good to go.”
Here’s the rest of Portland’s injury report ahead of the matchup with Utah (the report, of course, features an unavailable Ja Morant following the diagnosis of his Grade 2 left hamstring strain on Friday):
INJURY REPORT 10/31 @ UTA:
OUT
Jayson Kent (G League Two-Way)
Ja Morant (L Hamstring Strain)
Shaedon Sharpe (R Meniscus)
John Tonje (G League Two-Way)QUESTIONABLE
Robert Williams III (L Knee Injury Management)
Chris Youngblood (L Ankle Soreness)
The Blazers are scheduled to tip off against the Jazz on Saturday in Utah at Noon PDT. The game marks the start of a four-game road trip.
