Trying to beat the Trail Blazers in Portland is never an easy task, but it becomes especially difficult when the visiting team is asked to do it without their best player.
This was the predicament the New Orleans Pelicans found themselves in on Monday evening after Anthony Davis was forced to exit just 5:01 minutes into the contest. Initial reports blamed bumping knees with Maurice Harkless on the first play of the game, but later Jen Hale divulged that AD had originally tweaked his knee in pregame.
As @PelicansNBA AD gets MRI on L knee, getting word he tweaked knee during pre game warmups & was trying to make a go of it bf Harkless bump
— Jennifer Hale (@JenHale504) October 25, 2017
Regardless of what was precisely responsible for sidelining Davis, the fact that Alvin Gentry announced AD’s MRI came back negative in postgame comments is the news that truly counts.