The Portland Trail Blazers have won two games in a row after a seven game losing streak to get their record to 6-9. The Blazers may be getting more good news too as starting power forward Meyers Leonard is making progress in his return from a dislocated shoulder and could be back within the next few games for Portland, according to Joe Freeman of The Oregonian.
Leonard dislocated his shoulder back on November 11th against the San Antonio Spurs and at the time it seemed like the injury could have been much worse than it ended up being. The Blazers feared that Leonard had the same injury that Kevin Love sustained in the playoffs last season which ended up requiring surgery but instead Leonard is in the process of working his way back onto the court.
So far Leonard has missed six games and he is likely to miss at least a couple more but he is definitely making progress and thinks a return is pretty close.
"It's hard to put a timeline on it, but I'm hoping in the next few games that I'll have a chance to get back. After today I felt really good and strong when I was playing. I'm happy with the progress that I've made," said Leonard.
Leonard had been shooting for a little less than a week but on Monday he was able to play some live one-on-one against Chris Kaman and that should progress to 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 scrimmaging in the next couple of days. Leonard has increased his weight training and cardio and how quickly he progresses will depend on how the shoulder responds but so far so good as he says he feels strong.
Before the injury Leonard had started nine games for the Blazers and was averaging 8.4 points and 4.4 rebounds although he hadn't quite found his shooting stroke yet. The timing of the injury was unfortunate for the seven footer as he was finally given the opportunity to be a full-time starter but he should be put right back in that role when he returns. In his place Terry Stotts has started Kaman in two games and Noah Vonleh in the other four but neither has played well so Ed Davis has been getting the bulk of the minutes at the power forward spot off the bench.
