Ja Morant hamstring injury, Ja Morant games played
Morant, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, arrived in Oregon in a June trade and had appeared in every contest after the move Erik Drost / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Ja Morant has missed 167 of 246 games in the three seasons since his gun-related suspensions. Twenty-five of those games fell during his ban. Now a strained hamstring will sideline the Portland Trail Blazers guard for at least four weeks. The injury came on 29 October, in his first game against Memphis, who traded him.

The setback ends a bright start in Portland. Morant averaged 15.8 points and 5.5 assists in four games after a summer trade, and the team won three. The Trail Blazers said, 'Imaging revealed a grade two left hamstring strain.' The club will re-evaluate him in late November, after four weeks.

How the Injury Happened

In 23 minutes on court, Morant scored 14 points with three assists before leaving in the fourth quarter of a 124-103 defeat, Portland's first loss this term. He did not return. Coach Micah Nori said afterwards that Morant had felt a twinge in the hamstring before coming off. That four-week timeline rules him out of at least the next 15 games. Portland's announcement on X the next day appears below.

Dr Alec Denes, a Portland orthopaedic surgeon speaking generally about the injury, said a grade two strain involves torn muscle fibres. Those tears can cause bleeding and swelling. He told local broadcaster KATU that recovery usually takes four to six weeks. 'It's very important that we monitor how quickly his body is responding to the injury,' Denes said. He warned that returning early could cause a fresh injury or strain the other hamstring.

Missed Games Since 2023

Morant played nine games in the first of the three seasons, which opened with his second ban. That comeback ended within weeks, when a torn labrum in his right shoulder needed season-ending surgery. He returned for 50 appearances the following season, then managed only 20 last season, when an elbow sprain kept him out. Basketball-Reference game logs put his total across the three campaigns at 79, down from 181 in the previous three.

Two videos showing Morant with a firearm led to the suspensions. The NBA suspended Morant for eight games in March 2023. That ban followed his display of a gun in a video streamed online from a nightclub near Denver. A second livestream that May led to the longer suspension. Before then, the two-time All-Star was the 2020 Rookie of the Year and the 2022 Most Improved Player, averaging a career-best 27.4 points.

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What It Means for Portland

Portland agreed a trade with Memphis for Morant on 29 June, sending Jerami Grant and Kris Murray the other way. He joined Damian Lillard in the backcourt, and Nori had planned to ration their minutes to make full use of his depth. Ahead of the home opener, Nike marked his arrival with a neon Morant image on the city's White Stag sign.

Without him, Scoot Henderson has started at point guard, with Jrue Holiday coming off the bench. Portland has won all three of its games since the injury, beating Utah 112-90 before victories at Denver, 118-110, and Phoenix, 132-119. At 6-1, the team leads the Western Conference. Morant, 27, now faces his latest spell on the sidelines.

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