Ja Morant Out at Least 4 Weeks With a Grade 2 Hamstring Strain, 15 Portland Games Before His Re-Evaluation
Portland said Morant has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be re-evaluated in four weeks. The Blazers play 15 games before then, 10 on the road, by our count.
Photo: Official NBA headshot (cdn.nba.com).
The Portland Trail Blazers said Friday that Ja Morant has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be re-evaluated in four weeks. That re-evaluation lands around Nov. 27, and Portland plays 15 games between now and then, 10 of them on the road, by our count from the team's schedule.
He got hurt Thursday night in the fourth quarter of his first game against Memphis, the team he played seven seasons for. He had 14 points and three assists in 23 minutes before leaving a 124-103 loss. Portland started 3-0 and is now 3-1.
His Portland numbers vs. Memphis
The early numbers in Portland didn't look like the Memphis version. Through four games he averaged 15.8 points and 5.5 assists in 25.8 minutes on 12.0 shots a night, per Basketball-Reference. Across his seven Memphis seasons he averaged 22.4 points on 17.3 shots in 31.7 minutes.
He was making .542 from the field, and he hit 6 of 14 from three, per Basketball-Reference. Tuesday at the Lakers he scored 23 on 9-of-13 shooting in 31 minutes, a 136-129 win.
Deni Avdija leads the team at 22.8 points and 6.5 assists a game. Damian Lillard is at 18.5 points in 29.5 minutes. The Blazers have scored 122.8 points a game through four, per Basketball-Reference. Morant was the third creator in that group, not the only one.
The minutes go to two 36-year-olds and Scoot Henderson
Morant was playing 25.8 minutes a night at point guard. Portland has three other players listed at point guard who have already played every game: Lillard, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson.
Lillard and Holiday are both 36, per Basketball-Reference. Holiday is averaging 12.0 points and 4.0 assists in 25.3 minutes. Henderson, 22, is at 7.5 points in 18.8 minutes and has made 2 of 17 from three, per Basketball-Reference.
That is where the schedule matters. The 15 games before the re-evaluation include three back-to-backs: at the Lakers and home against San Antonio on Nov. 6 and 7, Oklahoma City twice at home on Nov. 10 and 11, and Minnesota twice on the road on Nov. 16 and 17. Then comes a three-game Eastern trip through Milwaukee, New York and Philadelphia from Nov. 19 to Nov. 23.
The NBA Cup is in the window
Four of the 15 games are NBA Cup group games: at the Lakers on Nov. 6, at Sacramento on Nov. 13, home against San Antonio on Nov. 25 and home against Golden State on Nov. 27, the day the four weeks run out, per the schedule. Cup games count in the standings and decide who reaches the knockout round.
Availability was always the question
Morant played 79 games total across his last three seasons in Memphis, by our count from his Basketball-Reference page: nine in 2023-24, 50 in 2024-25 and 20 in 2025-26.
The team's wording matters: four weeks is the re-evaluation date, not a return date.
Sources
- Portland Trail Blazers on X: Grade 2 left hamstring strain confirmed by imaging, re-evaluation in four weeks.
- Hoops Rumors: Ja Morant (Hamstring) Expected To Miss At Least Four Weeks: team announcement, injury in first game against the Grizzlies.
- ESPN: Trail Blazers' Ja Morant exits first game vs. Grizzlies with hamstring injury: fourth-quarter exit, 14 points and three assists in 23 minutes, 124-103 loss, 3-0 start, seven seasons in Memphis.
- Portland Trail Blazers: Ja Morant player page: 6-of-14 shooting against Memphis, 23 points on 9-of-13 in 31 minutes in the 136-129 win over the Lakers.
- Basketball-Reference: Ja Morant stats: 2026-27 per-game line (15.8 points, 5.5 assists, 25.8 minutes, 12.0 shots, .542 field goal percentage), Memphis career averages, games played by season.
- Basketball-Reference: 2026-27 Portland Trail Blazers: roster positions, ages and per-game stats for Avdija, Lillard, Holiday and Henderson, team scoring.
- Basketball-Reference: 2026-27 Portland Trail Blazers schedule: results, the 15 games from Oct. 31 to Nov. 27, back-to-backs, NBA Cup games.
- Shams Charania on X: Grade 2 strain and at least four weeks, per ESPN sources.
Figures marked "by our count" are the desk's own math from the linked stat pages.
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