Before his first shot, before his first bounce pass, and before his first leap to contest a shot, Jusuf Nurkic knows he will first be confronted with another challenge in his scheduled return to the Trail Blazers.



His damn emotions.



“I want to cry,” Nurkic said. “But I’m not going to cry.”



Sunday, in an afternoon contest against Houston, it will have been 355 days — nearly a year — since the 7-foot center has played in an NBA game. It was March 25 of last season when Nurkic crashed to the floor in overtime against Brooklyn, his left leg dangling gruesomely from compound fractures to his tibia and fibula.



Since then, there have been ups and downs. The surgery to insert a metal rod in his leg. The triumph of watching the team’s playoff march last season. The frustration of a calf strain six weeks ago that delayed his return to the court.



But through it all, Nurkic says there has been one...