Portland Trail Blazers guard Wesley Matthews tore his Achilles tendon in the third quarter of the Trail Blazers' game against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, the team announced. He has been ruled out for the season.
Here's a look at the play:
The worst case scenario for Matthews has been realized. It's obviously a huge blow to both the player and the team.
Matthews is set to be an unrestricted free agent after the season, and he was putting up big numbers for Portland. Entering the night, Matthews was averaging 16.1 points per game while making 39.1 percent of his three-pointers on 7.5 attempts per game from deep.
Portland was set to go for broke this season. Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge had already decided to play through a hand injury and put off surgery until the offseason. The team also dealt a future first round draft pick a the trade deadline to acquire guard Arron Afflalo from the Nuggets. Afflalo was supposed to bolster the bench, but now he'll replace Matthews in the starting lineup.
Portland went on to defeat the Mavericks 94-75.