NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Willie Green learned Friday that starting guard CJ McCollum and top defender Herb Jones would be joining point guard Dejounte Murray on the injury list for multiple weeks, the New Orleans Pelicans coach tried to look on the bright side.
“We’re grateful that it’s not something that’s going to keep those guys out the rest of the year,” Green said before New Orleans hosted the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. "It’s something that they can recover from.
“At the same time, it’s going to ask a lot of the rest of the group,” Green added. "You’ve got to cut down on mistakes ... grind and kind of weather the storm.”
McCollum, who has averaged 18.8 points in four games this season, has been diagnosed with a right adductor strain that is expected to sideline him about two to three weeks. Jones has a right shoulder strain and small low-grade partial thickness tear in his rotator cuff. The Pelicans say he could be out from two weeks to a month.
Both were hurt during the Pelicans' loss at Golden State on Tuesday night.
Murray, the Pelicans' top offseason acquisition, broke his hand late in New Orleans' regular season-opening victory over Chicago. Murray had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the lone game he's played for New Orleans. He had surgery last week and is expected to miss an additional three to five weeks
Meanwhile, New Orleans began the season without wing Trey Murphy III, who is recovering from a right hamstring strain that is expected to keep him out one more week.
The injuries will mean much more playing time for shooting guard Jordan Hawkins, a 2023 first-round draft choice out of Connecticut, and point guard Jose Alvarado, and fourth-year pro out of Georgia Tech. Both moved into the starting lineup on Wednesday night at Golden State, when New Orleans lost its third straight game.
The team also gave 7-foot rookie Yves Missi — a first-round draft pick out of Baylor — his first career start at center on Friday.
All three responded productively in a 125-118 victory over Indiana.
Hawkins scored 23 points. Alvarado added 12 points, seven assists and two steals. Missi grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked a shot and had four points, highlighted by his thunderous dunk over Indiana's Myles Turner.
“They were more active than usual, vocally and just energy-wise,” said Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, who led the club with 34 points and 10 assists. “When players do stuff like that, no matter which calibre player you're talking about, it's infectious. Like, people want to be a part of that. People feed off of that and it leads to those runs, lobs, blocks and just wanting to make the play.”
Williamson and wing Brandon Ingram represent what remains — for now — of New Orleans' usual starting lineup. But the Pelicans hope that with their leadership, they can stay competitive as several usual reserves adjust to more prominent roles.
“With this group, we just continue to stay together and go after it,” Green said. “Not having the main guys on the floor and having to adjust to guys that aren’t necessarily in the rotation, that’s the issue for us.
“We saw the first game what we would look like," Green added, referring to Murray's addition to this season's main lineup. "Without him, we were kind of going back to what we were doing last season; it wasn’t how we were playing all camp, so we’ve got to make some adjustments.”
Although Green conceded that it's easy to feel unlucky at times like these, he stressed that "life is too good and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to lead.”
“Things happen, adversity strikes and how we handle that, it prepares us for life," Green said. "That’s how I look at it.”
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Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons, left, dives for the ball against New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Howard Lao)
New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, right, drives to the hoop against Portland Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Howard Lao)
New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones (2) reacts after making a 3-point basket in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls in New Orleans, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. The Pelicans won 123-111. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, left, and injured guard CJ McCollum react on the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.
The 12-member jury returned the late-night verdict after clearing Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor's neighbors.
It’s the first conviction of a Louisville police officer who was involved in the deadly raid.
Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read around 9:30 p.m. Friday. They had earlier indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the charge of using excessive force on Taylor, but chose to continue deliberating. The six man, six woman jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.
Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse, saying: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”
Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor's glass door and windows during the raid, but didn't hit anyone. Some shots flew into a next-door neighbor's adjoining apartment.
The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked racial injustice protests nationwide.
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., called the verdict "a long-awaited moment of accountability."
“While it cannot restore Breonna to her family, it represents a crucial step in the pursuit of justice and a reminder that no one should be above the law,” King said in a social media post Friday night.
A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.
The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 12 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.
Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.
This jury had sent a note on Thursday to the judge asking whether they needed to know if Taylor was alive as Hankison fired his shots.
That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney Don Malarcik told the jury that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired.
After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to keep deliberating.
Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he moved away, rounded the corner of the apartment unit and fired into Taylor’s glass door and a window.
Meanwhile, officers at the door returned Walker’s fire, hitting and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.
Hankison’s lawyers argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting properly “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shots didn’t hit anyone.
Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. Hankison's verdict on Friday is the second conviction from those cases. The first was a plea deal from a former officer who was not at the raid and became a cooperating witness in another case.
Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired the shot that hit former Sgt. John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn the lights on as police were knocking and instead armed himself and hid in the dark.
“Brett Hankison was 12 inches away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.
Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 shots into doors and a window where he couldn’t see a target.
They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If they cannot see the person they’re shooting at, they cannot pull the trigger.”
Neither of the officers who shot Taylor — Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove — were charged in Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors have said those officers were justified in returning fire, since Taylor’s boyfriend shot at them first.
Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, center left, hugs a friend in Louisville, Ky., Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, after a former Kentucky police officer was convicted in federal court for using excessive force when he fired his gun during the deadly raid that left Taylor dead in 2020. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
FILE - Former Louisville Police officer Brett Hankison describes what he saw in the apartment of Brionna Taylor during testimony Wednesday, March 2, 2022, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool, File)
FILE - This photo provided by the Louisville Metro police department shows officer Brett Hankison. (Louisville Police Department via AP, File)
