“Pelicans’ Dejounte Murray breaks hand and will miss significant time”

The New Orleans Pelicans' big offseason addition will be a significant loss due to injury.

On Wednesday, in the Pelicans' season opener against the Chicago Bulls, All-Star guard Dejounte Murray suffered a broken hand.

Murray suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter of the Pelicans' 123-111 win.

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The 28-year-old attempted a 3-pointer with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Pelicans had a 12-point lead. He was fouled by Zach LaVine, landed on the floor and immediately started holding his left hand. He made two of three free throws before being substituted shortly afterwards. Here is a video of the piece:

“Hopefully he won’t be out too long,” Pelicans guard CJ McCollum said after the game. “He looked at me and said his hand didn’t feel right. He just kept playing. … He fought through it, he played and played well under the circumstances.”

Unfortunately for the Pelicans, tests confirmed a broken hand, which will sideline him for the foreseeable future. Murray had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in his Pelicans debut.

New Orleans acquired Murray in a blockbuster trade with the Atlanta Hawks this offseason. The Pelicans gave up Dyson Daniels, EJ Liddell, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller and two first-round picks for Murray.

The Hawks wanted to move on from Murray after unsuccessfully pairing him with Trae Young for two seasons. As for the Pelicans, they added another piece to a stacked roster set to compete in what appears to be an open Western Conference.

However, Murray will now miss significant time, which is a huge blow to New Orleans.

The Pelicans started the season 1-0 and played without key players Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III. Williamson was ruled out before the game due to illness, while Murphy is struggling with a right hamstring strain.

The Pelicans rewarded Murphy with a four-year contract extension worth $112 million earlier this week just before the start of the season. The hope is that he won't have to miss too much time this season, especially now that Murray will be out for an extended period of time.

The Pelicans' next game is Friday night against the 0-1 Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers were defeated by the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.

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