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During the first half of the New Orleans Pelicans' 118-116 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday night, Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray went down with a concerning right leg injury and immediately left the game. The Pelicans quickly ruled him out for the game and Murray left the arena with a boot and crutches.
Shortly after the game finished up, Murray got the worst possible diagnosis. He has a torn Achilles in his right leg and will miss the rest of the season, according to senior NBA insider Chris Haynes.
Murray missed a large chunk of time at the start of this season, his first campaign in New Orleans, after fracturing his hand in the season opener. Now, he has a long offseason of rehab ahead as he tries to get back on the court in 2025-26.
The Pelicans are already shorthanded at this point in the year, as they have been for much of the season, and now they will have to move on without Murray for the rest of the season. Star forward Brandon Ingram has been out since the beginning of December with a sprained ankle and defensive ace Herb Jones is out with a torn labrum. Zion Williamson also missed this game due to an illness, and he recently got back after an extended absence due to a hamstring injury.
Even with all of those injuries, the Pelicans were still very close to knocking off one of the best teams in the NBA on Friday night. Despite a valiant effort, the Celtics came up with the win at the end thanks to a tough jumper by Jayson Tatum with just two-tenths of a second remaining.
The Pelicans will have plenty of production to replace on both ends of the court without Murray in the lineup. He came into Friday's game averaging 17.9 points and 7.6 assists per game. Defensively, he has become one of the best thieves in the league, picking up 2.1 steals a night. That would be good for second place in the whole league if he had played enough games to qualify for the leaderboard.
