The New Orleans Pelicans suffer a blow as Trey Murphy's ankle sprain sidelines him. Who steps up to fill his crucial shooting void against the Detroit Pistons?
The New Orleans Pelicans are going to be shorthanded heading into Thursday night's meeting with the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, as they ruled out forward Trey Murphy ahead of tipoff.
Murphy was an unexpected addition to the injury report on Wednesday with an ankle sprain popping up after he played 36 minutes in Tuesday's loss to the New York Knicks. He had been listed as questionable, but the team ruled him out about an hour before the game tipped off.
Seeing as though he was trying to play, this likely won't end up being too impactful an injury. Also, given that this is the first part of a back-to-back, it could just be the team being wary and hoping to get him ready for Friday's game.
Counting the matchup with the Pistons, there are just nine more games left on the schedule, and the Pelicans are eliminated from play-in contention. There's no reason to take any unnecessary risks with their star players.
Murphy being healthy for this offseason is more important than getting him another game, though the forward would surely hope to play.
New Orleans will certainly miss the shooting that he provides. It'll be up to Saddiq Bey and Dejounte Murray to step up the spacing, as they are the other best shooters in the starting lineup.
It'll be interesting to see who starts in place of Murphy. When Murray goes out on back-to-backs, it has recently been Yves Missi. Given the structure of the rotation, that could work for an answer to Murphy as well.