Dallas, TX
Another injury: Trail Blazers to play Dallas Mavericks without starter
DALLAS — The shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers will play without another key player Sunday night. And it involves another point guard.
Starter Jrue Holiday has been ruled out against the Dallas Mavericks with right calf soreness, leaving the Blazers (6-6) without its top three point guards heading into the final game of a five-game trip.
Holiday was not listed on the team’s initial injury report, but the 6-foot-4 veteran awoke Sunday morning with a balky calf and the Blazers labeled him questionable Sunday afternoon. He tested it out during a pregame warmup at American Airlines Center and was later ruled out.
Multiple Blazers players were unaware of Holiday’s injury until about an hour and 15 minutes before tipoff, when news started spreading through the locker room that he would be sidelined.
Portland interim coach Tiago Splitter, who held a pregame interview with reporters before learning that Holiday had been ruled out, said he likely would start Jerami Grant in Holiday’s place. That would leave the Blazers without a true point guard in the lineup, forcing Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe to assume primary ball-handling responsibilities.
Holiday, who is averaging 16.7 points, 8.3 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, leads the Blazers in assists this season.
The Blazers are already playing without a pair of point guards — Scoot Henderson and Blake Wesley — who have played a combined six games this season. Henderson has been sidelined all season with a left hamstring injury, and Wesley has missed the last six games with a fracture in his right foot.
Holiday’s injury was harsh pregame news for a team that has stumbled to losses in four of its last six games, including three of four on its early-November trip to Miami, Orlando, New Orleans and Houston. The Blazers are coming off their most lopsided defeat of the season, a 140-116 loss at Houston on Friday night that prompted a players-only meeting afterward.
“Next man up is part of the NBA,” Splitter said, when asked about Holiday’s injury. “Everybody has got to be ready.”
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Morton started 15 games in 1972 for an injured Staubach, who eventually returned in the playoffs. The Cowboys decided to trade Morton in 1974 to the Giants, who sent back a first-round pick, which turned out to be the No. 2 overall pick in 1975. The Cowboys used that selection to take Randy White, a 10-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer.
Ironically enough, White’s best game was likely Super Bowl XII, when he was named Co-MVP with Harvey Martin. The Cowboys’ Doomsday defense dominated the Broncos, who were quarterbacked by Morton.
Overall, Morton played for the Cowboys, Giants and Broncos before officially retiring at the end of the 1982 season.
His career ended with 27,908 passing yards, ranking him 71st in NFL history, just ahead of Hall of Famer Joe Namath (27,663).
With the official NFL schedule coming this week, the Dallas Cowboys have revealed when, where and against who their Week 1 contest will be.
The Cowboys announced that they will square off against the New York Giants on the road in Week 1, with the game set for Sunday, Sept. 13, at 7:20 p.m. CT. So, it’s prime time for the Cowboys to start the season.
This is the second game we know about for the Cowboys this year. Of course, we know they will be playing on Thanksgiving, also.
The official schedule will drop on May 14, the NFL announced last week. Schedules for all 32 teams will be revealed on ESPN and the NFL Network, but each team will unveil its own schedule on social media, also.
The Cowboys were always likely to play a road game in Week 1 because of an Usher and Chris Brown concert taking place at AT&T Stadium that week.
Dallas will also be impacted by an Ed Sheeran concert in Week 7, so that’s another potential road game. They could also play on Monday or Thursday that week, or have a bye.
Cowboys’ strength of schedule
According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the Cowboys are not going to have an easy road to make the postseason.
The Cowboys have the fourth-toughest schedule in the NFL going into the 2026 season, with only the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers having tougher slates.
Dallas’ schedule is also the third-toughest in the NFC, and the most difficult in the NFC East.
Sharp does his strength of schedule rankings based on win totals from Vegas oddsmakers rather than utilizing the previous season’s records because that metric doesn’t factor in offseason changes.
The Cowboys will play home games against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.
On the road, Dallas will square off against the Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
Of those opponents, seven of them made the postseason in 2025, a list that includes the Jaguars, 49ers, Eagles, Texans, Rams, Seahawks and Packers.
All of those teams should be as good in 2026, and teams like the Colts, Titans, Ravens, Bucs, Giants and Commanders have a very real chance to be improved as well.
It won’t be an easy road for Dallas to get back to the playoffs in 2026, but there’s at least hope following a defensive overhaul.
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