Holiday, Gee shut down as Pels' woes continue
NEW ORLEANS — Add two more names to the Pelicans‘ already crowded list of players shut down for the rest of the 2015-16 season, with two more possibly to come.
The Pelicans announced Tuesday that Jrue Holiday suffered a fracture to his right inferior orbital wall and Alonzo Gee ruptured his right quad in Monday’s 99-91 win over the New York Knicks at Smoothie King Center. Both are done for the season.
Meanwhile, Ryan Anderson, who missed his fifth straight game Monday, has been diagnosed with a sports hernia and will get a second opinion from a specialist in Philadelphia, according to the Pelicans. And Norris Cole, out for the past 11 games with a lower back injury, has experienced “back discomfort,” according to the team, and is considered day-to-day.
New Orleans has already shut down Anthony Davis (left knee), Quincy Pondexter (left knee), Tyreke Evans (right knee), Eric Gordon (right finger) and Bryce Dejean-Jones (right wrist) for the season.
All told, Pelicans players have missed a total of 262 games this season because of injury. The team has used 36 starting lineups, the most in the NBA.
After losing Gee in the third quarter and Holiday in the waning minutes of Monday’s win, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry put out a call for anyone to help their injury woes.
“I am gonna send out an all-points bulletin to anybody in the French Quarter or anywhere else,” Gentry said. “We need a voodoo doctor or something here. We’ve gotta find the bones under this place. We’ve got to do something, because this is becoming comical.”
Holiday missed 90 games his first two seasons with the Pelicans with right leg injuries, including needing a rod implanted in his right tibia. The 25-year-old was on a heavy minutes restriction this season until the new year that included not playing in back-to-back games. He recently missed two games with a left toe injury, marking the first times he was out this season that were not due to precautionary measures. Monday’s game was his first back.
Gee was one of three players to not miss a game this season because of injury. Toney Douglas has yet to miss a game, and Dante Cunningham was held out for one game because of illness.
Including Cole, the Pelicans will have nine players available Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs, including two players — Tim Frazier and Jordan Hamilton — who were recently picked up on 10-day contracts. Frazier was recently signed for the rest of the season.
