Norman Powell's knee injury during the game against the Suns proved his fear

The Portland Blazers won't let anything ruin Billups' first win as head coach, with a 134-105 win over the Phoenix Suns. When Damien Lillard and his companions sprinkled Billups with a celebratory shower in the dressing room, one player was conspicuously absent from the celebration – which may prove it for the foreseeable future.

Norman Powell left the game halfway through the second quarter, prematurely ending a surge in individual scoring. With 5:43 left in the first half, he limped off the pitch and, accompanied by a team coach, went straight into the aisle of the Moda Centre. Portland then announced that Powell would miss the game with an undisclosed left knee injury, and Billups did not disclose his condition after the game, but only underwent an MRI examination.

The good news, though, is that Powell has not only avoided serious injuries, he could even play Tuesday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Powell scored 16 points on just eight shots before being forced into the dressing room. He was basically a spectator in the frustrating game the Blazers' inaugural loss to the Kings, but in the game against the Suns he was like a wheel tooth, scoring his first goal after a beautiful back-goal pass by Yusuf Nurkic. Powell got into his bag from there and seemed unhappy with the Suns examining him with diminutive defenders Chris Paul and Landry Shamet.

Paul and Javier McGee had no chance here to stop Powell from making a detour back to the basket.

A few rounds later, Powell had 6-foot-tall Paul pay the price for cheating the ball while defending a pass.

As a free agent, after ending his best season of his career last summer, Powell stressed that his decision to extend his contract at Portland for a long time was largely because Bilups' plans made him a more active and stable part of Portland's offense. After arriving from the Toronto Raptors on trade deadlines last season, he was often a victim of Lillard and C.J. McCollum taking turns standing in the corner directing the game — especially when the Blazers had a disappointing loss to the understaffed Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

The preseason didn't indicate that Powell's role would be as promised as he promised when discussing free agency with Billups and Neil Olsh. In the loss to Sacramento, Powell played 35 minutes but only shot nine times.

But his game on Saturday, no matter how brief, proved that Powell could indeed succeed in coexisting with more varied, random attacks led by Lillard and McCollum. Whether he's ready to play against the Clippers or not, that's another reason Portland deserves to celebrate — like the news of Billups' first win and Powell avoiding serious injuries.