The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Chicago Bulls in their season opener, but they lost veteran small forward Nicolas Batum to an injury.
Batum suffered a broken middle finger in his hand and will be out three-to-four weeks, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
Charlotte Hornets forward Nicolas Batum fractured the middle finger on his left hand last night against Chicago and is expected to be sidelined 3 to 4 weeks, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 24, 2019
Batum played just 11 minutes off the bench against the Bulls before exiting. He wasn’t able to attempt a shot, but did have four rebounds. The Hornets defeated the Bulls by a final score of 126-125.
Last season for the Hornets, Batum played in 75 games. He averaged 9.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per contest while shooting 45.0 percent from the field, 38.9 percent from beyond the arc and 86.5 percent from the free-throw line.
Batum will make $25,565,217 this season and has a player option worth $27,130,435 for next season, one which he will surely pick up since he won’t make that type of money on the open market. Batum signed a five-year, $120 million deal with the Hornets in the summer of 2016.
The 25th overall pick in the 2008 draft, Batum has career averages of 11.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 768 games with the Portland Trail Blazers and Hornets.
The Hornets face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday. Both teams are 1-0. Minnesota defeated the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday despite 50 points from Nets superstar Kyrie Irving.
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