Practice Report: Matthews leaves ill, Crabbe getting back in shape

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The Portland Trail Blazers wrapped up practice earlier than expected on Wednesday before the team departs for the Bay Area to play their final preseason game tomorrow evening against the Golden State Warriors.

The other thing that ended earlier than expected was Wesley Matthews’ participation in practice as Terry Stotts said that he left halfway through practice because he wasn’t feeling well. Stotts said that Matthews went to go see the doctor and he was unsure whether Matthews would make the trip with the team to the Bay Area.

Stotts said he was hoping that Thursday’s game would be an opportunity to see a real rotation that he might use in the regular season but it appears that injuries have thrown a wrench into his plans once again.

“It’s going to happen in the regular season,” he said. “The good thing is that four of the five starters have played all year together last year. And, as you guys may have noticed they played a lot of minutes together. I don’t know if you noticed that or not,” Stotts said with a hint of sarcasm.

Whether Matthews will play or not, Stotts did say he isn’t going to go deep into the bench.

“I’m not going to play 13 guys, I know that.”

Crabbe getting back in shape

Rookie guard Allen Crabbe was out for almost a week with a bout with gastroenteritis and he was back at the practice facility yesterday. He spoke with the media today and said that he is just trying to ease his way back.

“I didn’t fully participate, I only did some of the drills,” he said. “While they were practicing, I was on the sideline doing some conditioning stuff. Just getting up jumpers and stuff like that.”

Crabbe’s performance in the early part of training camp was impressive, especially to Stotts who said that Crabbe was one of the team’s better defenders.

Crabbe said that he doesn’t know whether he will be able to play against Golden State on Thursday but he didn’t sound to optimistic.

“I have no idea. It’s all up to the trainers right now,” he said. ” They said I was out for a pretty significant amount of time so they are not really trying to rush me back. They said the main thing is just getting ready for the season opener.”