Pelicans Dejounte Murray suffers fractured hand on opening night |Max Sporty|

Dejounte Murray, the guy brought in to usher New Orleans into a new era of success, fell victim on opening night to one of the things that has slowed them down in recent years – injuries.

Murray reportedly broke his hand, story first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania and confirmed by other reports. While it’s impossible to say how long he’ll be out without more details on the injury (something that will emerge over the next few days), a best-case non-displaced fracture would likely still mean a month or more. on the side (based on Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes previous reports).

The injury appeared to occur in the fourth quarter when Murray was guarding Josh Giddey and the Bulls’ guard was driving the lane. Murray’s hand appears to be caught on Giddey’s jersey. Murray stayed in the game after that, tried a 3 where he was fouled, and stayed in the game to take the free throws, but was put out after and did not return.

Murray scored 14 points with 10 assists and 8 rebounds in the opening night of the Pelicans’ come-from-behind win.

The Pelicans got the win behind 33 points from Brandon Ingram, plus 23 points from CJ McCollum. Zion Williamson did not play in the game due to illness, which the team announced before the game (to raise eyebrows around the league due to his injury history; we’ll see if that’s anything). Rookie center Yves Missi had a strong game off the bench for the Pelicans with 12 points and seven rebounds, if he can keep this up it would be a massive boost for a team that is thin at five.

New Orleans will have to keep getting wins without Murray for a while.