New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram will be sidelined for at least the next two weeks due to a bone bruise in his left knee according to the team.
Ingram was helped off the court in his team’s 121-106 loss to the Orlando Magic Thursday night, after appearing to hyperextend his knee. Additional testing revealed no structural damage, but a deep bone bruise was diagnosed by the Pelicans medical team.
Ingram was injured on a play early in the 3rd quarter while attempting to defend Magic guard Jalen Suggs. As Suggs was driving towards the basket, contact was made, resulting in Ingram’s knee bending at an awkward angle.
The injury clearly looked much worse than it turned out to be, as many believed that Ingram’s season could be over given the amount of discomfort he appeared to be in. “Our prayers will be going up and hopefully we get some good news back,” Pelicans coach Willie Green told reporters after the game.
The 26 year old is currently averaging 20.9pts/5.1reb/5.8ast/0.8stl per contest for New Orleans this season. The Pelicans currently occupy the 5th spot in the Western Conference standings with a 42-27 record. With only 13 games left on the schedule, the hope is that Ingram would be able to return to game action during the regular season, but the team could opt for additional rest if their seeding isn’t a factor down the stretch.
In his absence, expect Trey Murphy III to see an uptick in minutes for the Pels, while Zion Williamson could be in line for additional ball handling duties as well.
New Orleans is next in action Friday night at 8pm ET against the Miami Heat.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.