The Detroit Pistons have won four of their last five games but they’re not in a celebratory mood.
Starting guard Jaden Ivey suffered a broken left fibula during their victory over Orlando on Wednesday night.
Ivey, who scored a team-high 22 points, was injured with 10:07 remaining when Orlando’s Cole Anthony collided with him while battling for a loose ball. Ivey, second on the Pistons with 17.6 points per game, was taken off the court in a stretcher.
The Pistons will play their first game since the serious injury when they host the Charlotte Hornets in the first game of a back-to-back on Friday night. Detroit will remain home to take on Minnesota on Saturday.
“It’s tough on all of us,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “No better teammate, person, than (Ivey). No one cares more about this thing than him. It’s tough to see.”
Detroit never trailed but Orlando came within three points after Ivey’s injury. An 8-0 run allowed the Pistons to secure the hollow victory.
“We said a prayer for him and just wanted to collect ourselves and talk about it, make sure everyone was on the same page about what we had to do from that point on and know who we were doing it for,” said Ivey’s backcourt partner and the team’s leading scorer, Cade Cunningham (23.8 ppg).
“We already had a lot of attention on this game, January 1st, we wanted to start the year off right. Seeing that happen, that was tough on us, and we wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page.”
Second-year guard Marcus Sasser figures to absorb some of Ivey’s minutes.
The Hornets are desperate for a victory. They have lost eight straight and 16 of their last 17.
Charlotte has only seven wins, two of which have come at Detroit’s expense. Both have gone down to the wire.
Charlotte pulled out a 108-107 victory in the first of four meetings on Nov. 6 on Brandon Miller’s buzzer-beating putback. The next meeting took overtime to decide, with Miller scoring eight of his career-best 38 points in the extra session as Charlotte emerged with a 123-121 win on Nov. 21.
The Hornets came close to ending their current losing streak on Monday, succumbing to the Chicago Bulls 115-108 in overtime.
Miller has missed five of the last six games due to a left ankle sprain. LaMelo Ball has missed the last two games with left ankle and right wrist soreness. Both are listed as questionable on Charlotte’s injury report.
“We have been playing way more competitive since that Rockets game (a 114-101 loss on Dec. 23),” forward Miles Bridges said. “We competed with the No. 1 team in the NBA (Oklahoma City) and then against the Bulls, who beat us by (14) last time we played, we pushed it down to the wire. We have played better. We just have to continue to compete and give ourselves a chance.”
Veteran guard Seth Curry has received inconsistent playing time but he’s been productive the past two games, scoring a combined 29 points.
“He has just a knack for scoring, which really helps us,” coach Charles Lee said. “I think defensively, he’s pretty heady, understands positioning and where he should be, understands other teams’ sets. His communication with our team, I think he’s had some intentional conversations with guys throughout the game, too. We’re feeling his impact in a lot of ways.”
–Field Level Media
