National Basketball Association

After surgery, Matthews cheers Blazers from couch -- in uniform

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:55 p.m. ET

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If you're looking for the most tight-knit team in the NBA, it'll be hard to top the Portland Trail Blazers.

Less than a week after guard Wesley Matthews was lost for the season with a torn Achilles, the Blazers played their first home game since the injury Wednesday. It was a big day for Matthews ... earlier in the day, he underwent his season-ending surgery to repair the injury.

And before the game, players took the court for pregame warmups with their fallen teammate on their minds ... and their T-shirts.

Matthews, ever the grateful teammate, then showed his thanks to and support of his teammates at halftime of the game with this Instagram post ... again, just hours after his surgery.

Yup, that's Matthews in uniform. And the folks running the Moda Center big screen made sure the players saw it.

Did it inspire the Blazers? Well, at the time, Portland was up just one on the Houston Rockets at halftime, 54-53. But the Blazers came out and stretched the lead to six by the end of the third quarter, and held on for a tight, 105-100 win.

The win was a big one for the Blazers; it moved them into a virtual tie with Houston for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, Portland holding a percentage-points lead over the Rockets.

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