Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers guard, had been on a tear but left Game 4 with a knee injury. The Lakers would win the series with a victory on Wednesday.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, one of the standout performers of the N. B. A. restart at Walt Disney World, will sit out Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers because of a sprained right knee, an injury that could end his season. Portland must win on Wednesday to avoid elimination in the best-of-seven series after the Lakers responded to a Game 1 defeat by winning the next three games by a combined 51 points. The severity of Lillard’s injury, sustained Monday night in the third quarter of Portland’s 135-115 defeat, was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by a magnetic resonance imaging exam after a postgame M. R. I. proved inconclusive.
