LaMarcus Aldridge has said that he was keen to test his injured thumb in the Portland Trail Blazers' win over the Washington Wizards.
The team had announced that the power forward would miss six to eight weeks while recovering from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb, but he decided to play through the pain to lead the scoring in the 103-96 win last night.
The 29-year-old told reporters: "I'm not into the rah-rah story. I just wanted to come back and play. I wanted to test it out at home, and versus these guys because I felt they were a physical team, and if I could play against these guys then that would be good. And I was okay."
Aldridge has averaged 23.3 points per game for the Trail Blazers this season.
