Nets' Paul Pierce to miss 2-4 weeks with non-displaced fracture in right hand
Paul Pierce will join the ranks of Brooklyn's wounded. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
The bad breaks just keep coming for the 5-12 Nets. After losing Deron Williams (ankle), Brook Lopez (ankle), Andrei Kirilenko (back), and Jason Terry (knee) for significant stretches of the season thus far, Brooklyn announced on Monday that Paul Pierce will miss the next 2-4 weeks of game action due to a non-displaced fracture in his right hand. That Kirilenko is still out of the lineup as well puts the Nets' small forward rotation in complete disarray, with the majority of the minutes at the position likely to be filled by Alan Anderson and Mirza Teletovic -- as was the case in the Nets' first game without Pierce on Saturday.
This continues what has been a rough season for Pierce, who hasn't taken to playing with his new team well in the slightest. While it was assumed that Pierce would be taking on a smaller role due to Brooklyn's loaded starting lineup, his expected dip in production has been accompanied by career-worst marks in two-point (42.4 percent) and three-point percentage (26.8 percent) alike, as well as a career-high turnover rate (16.3 percent). A break in his shooting hand, then, doesn't just rule out Pierce for the next 2-4 weeks, but could make it even more difficult for him to rebound from this dispiriting slump.
Kevin Garnett
