Just prior to the New Orleans Pelicans Friday night matchup with the Atlanta Hawks, news broke that the team would be without key reserve Josh Hart for an extended period of time due to a thumb injury.
“It’s going to be very significant, no question, and obviously we will feel it defensively,” Pelicans coach Stan Van Sunday said. “He is a guard who has guarded guys one through four for us, and he is our best defensive rebounder. He had 16 defensive rebounds last night in the game. We are going to miss him a lot on both ends. Plus, he is a guy who can get out and lead the break, go coast-to-coast to score. He makes a decent enough amount of threes that you have to guard him. It is a big loss, no question, and it is tough for him. He is in a contract year and playing well and hard and getting a lot of minutes, and then he has to sit out. Not good for us, not good for him.”
Hart was one of several of the Pelicans’ key players out Friday night including Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Steven Adams as New Orleans fell to the Hawks, 126-103.
“I thought that we forced up a lot of really tough shots in the paint. [Clint] Capela blocked some shots. I did not think we made good decisions or took good shots,” Van Gundy said. “I thought our guys played with pretty good energy offensively, pretty good pace, but our decision-making was not good, particularly in the second half. The ball didn’t move as well. We didn’t draw help and kick it out. We just did not make good decisions.”
