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Portland’s Nassir Little likely out for season with shoulder tear

Nassir Little’s assessment of his shoulder injury appears to have been way off.

Little, after injuring his shoulder in Tuesday’s 109-107 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, will likely miss the rest of the season with a left shoulder labral tear, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Portland announced the injury on Thursday after an MRI revealed the labral tear, though the team did not provide any timeline for his return. The “expectation,” per Wojnarowski, is that Little’s season is over.

Little said his arm became tangled with Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns on Tuesday when the two were fighting for a rebound in the fourth quarter at the Moda Center.

“I just got it strained a little bit and it was hurting a lot initially, but after I kind of moved my arm around I realized I was all right and that I was being a little bit of a drama queen,” Little said after the game, via the Trail Blazers.

He did not play in Wednesday’s 132-112 loss to the Dallas Mavericks as a precaution, and underwent an MRI instead.

Little dropped a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds against the Timberwolves while shooting 7-of-11 from the field. He averaged a career-high 9.8 points and 5.6 rebounds this season, his third in the league after the Trail Blazers selected him with the No. 25 overall pick in 2019. The 21-year-old is in the third year of his four-year, $10 million deal with the team.

The Trail Blazers currently hold a 20-28 record after dropping two straight, and are 10th in the Western Conference standings. If the season ended today, they would take the final spot in the postseason play-in tournament.

Nassir Little of the Portland Trail Blazers