Pelicans’ Ryan Anderson suffers right knee sprain vs. Heat
New Orleans Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson left Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat after suffering a sprained right knee early in the second quarter.
The 6-foot-10 Anderson was vying for offensive rebounding position after a missed shot by teammate Dante Cunningham when Heat guard Mario Chalmers came down hard on the floor-spacing big man’s lower right leg:
Anderson instantly began favoring his right knee, falling to the floor and crawling to the baseline in evident pain. He was helped off the court by Pelicans personnel and brought back to the locker room for evaluation, which resulted in him being pulled from the remainder of the game:
Anderson had scored four points on 2-for-3 shooting with one rebound in seven minutes before sustaining the injury. The 26-year-old Cal product, an integral floor-spacer off the bench for Monty Williams’ club, is averaging 14.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in 29 minutes per game this season for the Pelicans.
Anderson’s injury came shortly after his teammate, All-Star power forward Anthony Davis, left the game following a collision that reaggravated the right shoulder injury that kept him sidelined for the 2015 NBA All-Star Game. Davis, too, was ruled out for the balance of Saturday’s game against Miami, a difficult blow for a Pelicans team that’s already playing without injured point guard Jrue Holiday, who’s been out for five weeks with a “stress reaction” in his right leg and can ill afford more injuries to pivotal players.
Both Davis and Anderson will be re-evaluated Sunday, according to NBA.com’s David Aldridge:
Despite the early exits by Davis and Anderson, the Pelicans beat the Heat, 105-91, behind strong outings by shooting guard Eric Gordon (24 points, 6-for-11 from 3-point range, six assists, four rebounds), center Omer Asik (15 points, nine rebounds, two assists) and former Heat guard Cole (12 points, six rebounds, three assists). The win moved the Pelicans back above .500 at 28-27, and kept them two games back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
Mario Chalmers scored 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting off the bench to lead the Heat, who fell to 23-31. Dwayne Wade added 19 points, albeit on 8-for-23 shooting, to go with four rebounds and four assists, while trade-deadline acquisition Goran Dragic chipped in 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting, three rebounds and one assist in his debut for the Heat, who earlier Saturday announced that All-Star power forward Chris Bosh will miss the remainder of the season as he undergoes treatment for blood clots in his lungs.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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