At various stages of the 2015-16 regular season, all three of New Orleans’ centers have sustained injuries, causing frequent shuffling at the position, along with several other role changes at various spots. The Pelicans are now down to only one available healthy pivot.
As a result of an elbow from Houston’s Dwight Howard Wednesday night, Pelicans center Alexis Ajinca sustained a broken sternum and will be out indefinitely. Omer Asik is already sidelined by a right ankle sprain, leaving Kendrick Perkins as the lone New Orleans center available vs. San Antonio in a national TV game on TNT.
Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry will once again be forced to improvise at the 5 position, with Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson and potentially Dante Cunningham playing some there. There was one positive piece of injury news pregame, as Cunningham is expected to play after he injured his left knee in Houston. Cunningham appeared to bang knees with a Rockets player and had to leave the 100-95 loss in the second half.
Other notes from pregame at the Smoothie King Center:
With five players ruled out, the Pelicans (23-36) only will have 10 players in uniform. Cunningham may not be 100 percent, but is going to give it a go. “We’ll see how he is. He wants to go, so we’ll see how he starts out and how he feels,” Gentry said. …
Asked if he’s ever experienced this number of injuries on a team, Gentry said, “Not in the 27 years I’ve been in the league. Not in the 11 years I was in college as a coach. It’s the first time where I’ve experienced this.”
