It will be the first time Nurkic will get to play with Hassan Whiteside, the center Portland traded for in the offseason as a placeholder and who is currently leading the league in blocks at 3.1 per game. “He’s my teammate,” Nurkic told Yahoo Sports. “I don’t know the plans going forward, but my mind is on how I’m going to help this team make the playoffs. We just need to sacrifice our games for the team’s good, do the little things that don’t show on the stat sheet and put our games together for possibly the playoffs. We have a chance, and when you have a chance, you’ve got to go get it.”