Blazers' LaMarcus Aldridge delays thumb surgery to play

LaMarcus Aldridge gave the thumbs down on thumb surgery on Saturday, when the Portland Trail Blazers star forward made the shocking decision to continue playing despite the tear in the radial collateral ligament in his left thumb.

Aldridge was expected to have the surgery and miss six to eight weeks — the kind of time that would certainly have threatened the Blazers' incredible season.

"I'll just play until it's intolerable. Tonight, I thought it was tolerable," he said after starting and scoring a team-high 26 points in Portland's 103-96 win against the Washington Wizards. "It was hurting a little but it wasn't too much. I'll just keep going until I feel like I'm not playing as good as I can, or I can't take it."

The Blazers were 31-12 before he went down in the game against the Sacramento Kings on Monday night, but the recent evidence strongly suggests that it wouldn't have continued. Portland lost to the Boston Celtics on Thursday and is 11-7 when playing without Aldridge in the last two seasons.

"My idea now is to play the rest of the season," he said. "But if it gets too much where I can't handle it or I'm not playing at a very good level then I'll stop. But hopefully it goes well for us."

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As first reported by the team's Twitter account, Aldridge started Saturday night against the Wizards. Only time will tell if he's taking too much of a risk, but the fact that it's his non-shooting hand is certainly a major factor.

Aldridge, who will be a free agent this summer, is having arguably the best season of his nine-year career. His scoring average (23.2 points a game) is the sixth-best in the league, while his rebounding (10.2) is 11th.

"You can't say enough," coach Terry Stotts said. "That was big time. Not only coming back and playing through the injury but then not favoring it, going hard, not shying away from contact, being aggressive on both ends of the court — I mean, that was big time."

Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick. Contributing: Associated Press.