Early returns for NBA stars… returning

Even after tweaking his calf in a loss against the Heat, Lillard has scored the most points of any player in the NBA (155). He’s got a couple of 40-plus point games, and has been able to beat pretty much everybody off the bounce save for Davion Mitchell, and no guard can routinely get past Off Night. (While that’s a creative nickname for the second-year guard out of Baylor, it’s not smooth enough to catch on.)

Portland’s season depends on how healthy Dame is, and up until the third quarter of the game Wednesday, it was going better than most could’ve predicted after watching the 29 appearances he made last season and the Olympics before that.

Lillard said if it was a playoff game, he would’ve tried to walk it off. However, being the fifth outing of the season, he and the team erred on the side of caution. At 4-1, and with only Houston on the schedule until Wednesday, the Blazers can withstand an early season week reprieve for its best player — and ideally, that’s all it is.

We haven’t seen Jamal Murray score more than 40 points since he dropped a 50 burger on the Cavs in February 2021. To be fair, he didn’t tear his ACL until a couple of months after that, didn’t have an injury history before the tear, and, at his peak, can score with any guard in the NBA.

He didn’t return to the playoffs last season like a lot of Denver fans had hoped for, but I’d rather not mess with rushing back from an ACL when it wouldn’t have mattered. Thus far, in about 26 minutes per game, he’s still finding his legs and the confidence in them. The Nuggets are 2-2 in games he’s played (they’re 3-2 overall), and he’s shooting 38 percent from the floor, 6 points lower than his career average.

Unless you had money on the Nuggets for the best record in the league, it’s insanely early to worry about him, or his team, though. They have the reigning two-time MVP, and Nikola Jokic essentially doubles as training wheels for Murray’s comeback.

My biggest worry about Denver is its defense, and it’ll take a bit for the seventh-year guard to regain the ability to stick with opposing backcourts. The Nuggets are bottom four in points allowed at 111 per game, and only really have two, maybe three defense-first guys on their roster in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Aaron Gordon, and whatever bench player Nugs’ fans think I forgot.

The thing I admired about the two-and-a-half games we’ve seen out of Zion was that he looked like himself. He was unafraid to attack the rim as evidenced by his refusal to shoot outside the paint. His 57 field goal attempts have all come within the restricted area, and he’s making 49 percent of them.

It would be nice if he showed a small amount of caution though. Currently sidelined with a posterior hip contusion stemming from a hard fall after Jordan Clarkson blocked his transition dunk attempt, Zion is the kid that snaps his wrist trying to do a kickflip and is out in the driveway trying to do it again before the plaster on his cast even sets. The Pelicans can try all they want to coddle and baby him, but eventually, the toddler is going to have to learn from a sharp corner or three.

It’s also a little on the New Orleans organization to stop rushing over every time a loud noise startles Williamson. Half the time kids start crying because of their parents’ reaction, and someone needs to tell him he’s a big boy.

I know casual marathon runners don’t run the full 26-plus miles in preparation for the big day. They work their way up, and drain all of the energy out of their body on race day. That’s the only feasible reason for Kawhi Leonard’s approach this year. He’s played in two of the Clippers’ first four games, hasn’t started either, and tallied 20 minutes off the bench both nights. Oh, and he’s already sitting out games due to knee stiffness.

I have no idea what I’m supposed to glean from less than four quarters of action, or this knee stiffness. He was average against the Lakers, hitting six of 12 shots for 14 points, and collecting seven rebounds. In the second appearance against Phoenix, he had six points on two for six from the field, with six rebounds. This is Leonard’s first action since an ACL tear in June 2021, so in theory, we should be as patient with him as we are with Murray.

That said, since the 2017-18 season, the Claw hasn’t appeared in more than 60 contests in any year, with total games played of nine, 60, 57, 52, and zero in that five-year span.

The guy should be fresher than a Japanese fish market, yet seeing him play basketball — aka his job — is like catching a glimpse of a Tasmanian tiger or a snow leopard in its natural habitat. And it’s not as if he’s old enough to merit the load-iest management in the league as has been the case the past several years. He’s 31, not LeBron James in year 20.