Point guard Jrue Holiday hasn’t played a game for the New Orleans Pelicans since early January. Prior to suffering a stress reaction in his leg, Holiday was averaging 15.2 points, 7.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
Despite Holiday’s injury, the Pelicans managed to play some solid basketball behind strong play from Anthony Davis and Tyreke Evans. The Pelicans now find themselves in a tie with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 8 seed in which they have the tiebreaker.
The team announced on Friday afternoon that Holiday would return to the floor Friday night. With just 4 games left to play, Jrue Holiday’s impact would be helpful for the team as they do all they can to maintain control of the 8 seed.
However, head coach Monty Williams intends to ease Holiday back into the rotation slowly, per the Pelicans official site:
“He won’t be playing more than 15 minutes a game for the rest of the season,” Williams said. “Unless he feels better and we feel like he’s not in harm’s way – then we’ll increase it. But I doubt that he’ll get to his normal minute allotment. Jrue’s a guy who can play 35 to 40 minutes a night, but he won’t get to that.”
Even if Holiday won’t be playing too many minutes, he is still an upgrade over Norris Cole and Toney Douglass. Hopefully Holiday’s leadership and perimeter defense can help the Pelicans make the playoffs.
