{"id":105752,"date":"2024-11-08T06:18:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=105752"},"modified":"2024-11-08T06:18:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:18:52","slug":"hornets-miles-bridges-knee-bruise-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/08\/hornets-miles-bridges-knee-bruise-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets Frontcourt Further Compromised With Latest Injury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets<\/a> are off to a 3-5 start to open the 2024-25 season. In an Eastern Conference that has just two teams with winning records at the moment, that sub-.500 record has Charlotte currently in a Play-In Tournament position (albeit very early into the season). The Hornets already have injury woes when it comes to their frontcourt though early on. Miles Bridges<\/a> can now be added to their injury report, further weakening their frontcourt depth chart just eight games into the season.<\/p>\n

Hornets Frontcourt Further Compromised With Latest Injury News<\/h2>\n

Miles Bridges Suffered Injury On Wednesday<\/h3>\n

The 26-year-old Bridges had his best game of the young season in Charlotte\u2019s most recent outing. On Wednesday, they defeated the Detroit Pistons<\/a> to move to within two games of .500. In the win, Bridges finished with 27 points, seven rebounds, and two assists. He scored quite efficiently as well shooting 8-14 from the field, 2-3 from beyond the arc, and 9-9 from the foul line. The team was a +6 with Bridges on the court, the first time since opening night that he finished with a positive plus\/minus.<\/p>\n

The Hornets were certainly hoping that Bridges could build off his excellent outing. They will have to now wait a while to see if the 6-foot-7 forward will be able to do so. Charlotte has announced<\/a> that Bridges hyperextended his right knee late in the fourth quarter in Wednesday\u2019s win. The MRI revealed a bone bruise, and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks.<\/p>\n

It is a tough break for Bridges and the Hornets. The team is already without starting center Mark Williams<\/a>, who has yet to play thus far in the season. The player starting in his place, Nick Richards<\/a>, suffered a rib cartilage fracture<\/a> on November 1. The next update for Richards will be after the Hornets road trip ends on November 17. The 39-year-old Taj Gibson<\/a> has been thrust into the starting lineup in their place.<\/p>\n

Bridges Was Off To A Slow Start To Begin Season<\/h3>\n

An unrestricted free agent during the offseason, the Hornets agreed<\/a> to bring Bridges back on a three-year, $75 million deal. This is now his sixth season in the league, all coming with Charlotte (not counting 2022-23 where he sat out the whole season due to off-the-court troubles<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Prior to the Detroit game, Bridges had mostly been struggling through the Hornets first seven games. He was averaging just 12.9 points entering Wednesday with some woeful shooting numbers (36.4% from the field, 23.8% from three-point range).<\/p>\n

It was last season where Bridges put up career-high averages of 21.0 points and 7.3 rebounds. With LaMelo Ball<\/a> only playing 22 games, Bridges and then-rookie Brandon Miller<\/a> became the go-to scorers on a Charlotte club that was never near contending for the playoffs, finishing with a 21-61 record. It was the second time Bridges averaged more than 20 points an outing (20.2 in 2021-22).<\/p>\n

With the news that Bridges will be re-evaluated in two weeks, he will miss at least the next six contests. Charlotte next plays Friday at home against the Indiana Pacers<\/a>. Cody Martin<\/a> and Grant Williams<\/a> are two options to replace Bridges in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets are off to a 3-5 start to open the 2024-25 season. In an Eastern Conference that has just two teams with winning records at the moment, that sub-.500 record has Charlotte currently in a Play-In Tournament position (albeit very early into the season). The Hornets already have injury woes when it comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":105767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,7,62,3],"tags":[4044,1148,4745,2978],"class_list":["post-105752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-nba","category-news","tag-mark-williams","tag-miles-bridges","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nick-richards"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}