The New Orleans Pelicans are in a tough spot right now. The team is slipping in the Western Conference, sitting four games back of the 8-seed with a 21-25 record, all while the cloud of an enormous offseason hanging over everything because of the uncertain future of Anthony Davis with the franchise. Now, the Pelicans will need to navigate potentially the next two weeks with Davis on the sideline.
The Pelicans announced that Davis suffered a sprained left index finger during the fourth quarter Friday night’s 128-112 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, an injury which is expected to keep him out up to two weeks.
Injury Update: Anthony Davis sustained a left index finger sprain in last night’s game. Davis is expected to be out approximately 1-2 weeks #Pelicans pic.twitter.com/ag8yCgwCDL
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 19, 2019
The fact that Davis suffered a relatively minor injury and won’t miss too terribly much time is good news for New Orleans, but on the whole, this is a tough pill for the team to swallow. If he does miss all two weeks and returns sometime after Saturday, Feb. 2, that means Davis could be sidelined for seven games: at Memphis, Detroit, at Oklahoma City, San Antonio, at Houston, Denver, at San Antonio.
That’s a brutal slate to navigate without Davis, and if his absence ends up being on the longer side of the projected timetable, it’s not hard to see him returning to a Pelicans team that needs to make up a ton of ground to make the postseason.
