Brandon Ingram injures his left knee in the 3rd quarter of Thursday's game in Orlando.
The New Orleans Pelicans will be thinner on the frontline as the season wanes. The team announced Friday that forward Brandon Ingram will be out at least two weeks after suffering a bone contusion on his left knee.
Ingram suffered his injury in the Pelicans’ 121-106 road loss to the Orlando Magic last night. He was injured early in the second half and his teammates had to help him off the court. Ingram finished with 14 points on 7-for-12 shooting and had four rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes.
Brandon Ingram underwent an MRI after
hyperextending his left knee during the third quarter of last night’s game against the Orlando Magic.The results of the MRI revealed a left knee bone contusion.
Ingram will be re-evaluated in two weeks
and additional updates will be…— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) March 22, 2024
Outlook for Pelicans: New Orleans will be without its No. 2 scorer as Ingram is averaging 20.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game this season while shooting 49% overall and 35.6% on 3-pointers. He and star forward Zion Williamson have helped the Pelicans remain in the West’s playoff mix and his absence will put a larger scoring burden on Williamson (22.7 ppg), CJ McCollum (18.3 ppg) and Trey Murphy III (14.1 ppg) down the stretch.
New Orleans (42-27) is the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, leading the Dallas Mavericks by 1 1/2 games and trailing the LA Clippers for No. 4 by the same margin. The Pelicans lead the Southwest Division but the Mavs are nipping at their heels in that chase, too.
The Pelicans are 1-1 on their current four-game road trip, which ends on Sunday in Detroit. After that, the team has six straight home games, but five of those are against teams currently in the playoff mix.
Should Ingram miss exactly two weeks, he’d be back for an April 5 home game vs. the San Antonio Spurs. After that game, New Orleans closes out its season with a four-game road swing (April 7-12) before its season finale at home (April 14) vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
