DETROIT — With roughly 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of the Detroit Pistons’ 105-96 win over the Orlando Magic, Cole Anthony dove for a loose ball and collided with Jaden Ivey’s left leg. Ivey immediately fell to the ground and was writhing in pain, even grabbing the referee’s leg in discomfort at one point. He was stretchered off the floor after being attended to by the Pistons’ medical staff.
The severity of Ivey’s injury is not yet known. Anthony was visibly shaken up once he realized Ivey seemed seriously injured.
“It’s tough on all of us,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of Ivey’s injury postgame. “No better teammates or teammate than J.I. (Ivey). No one cares more about this thing than him. It’s tough to see.”
Ivey is in the midst of his best season in the NBA and looked to be taking the proverbial third-year leap. The 22-year-old is on pace for career highs in points, rebounds, steals, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and 3-point attempts.
Detroit has won five of its last eight games, already passing its win total from last season, and Ivey has been a key component of its success.
Despite multiple players showing concern for their teammate, the Pistons put emotions aside and closed out the rest of the fourth quarter to hold off the Magic.
“I give our guys credit for doing it,” Bickerstaff said. “At the heart of this team, what we’ve tried to preach all year since we’ve been here is the togetherness. If one guy goes down, you don’t want to let that guy down. So everybody else has to step up. It’s the emotions, the human aspect of it, but I thought our guys did a really good job of sticking together and getting it done.”
The Pistons are 1-2 in games without Ivey this season. The timetable of his absence, if any, remains to be seen, but Ivey being out of the lineup likely means more minutes for Ausar Thompson, rookie Ron Holland, Marcus Sasser and potentially Wendell Moore Jr.
Losing Ivey’s career-best 39.2 percent shooting from 3-point range will be a detriment to this Pistons team, with Detroit entering Wednesday ranked at 16th in the league in 3-point percentage.
With the win on Wednesday, the Pistons improve to 15-18. Detroit has a day off before hosting the Charlotte Hornets on Friday and Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
