NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans were without seven players because of injury Monday against the New York Knicks.
After losing Alonzo Gee in the third quarter to a right quad injury and Jrue Holiday in the waning minutes to a right eye injury, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry put out an SOS for any and all help to their season-long injury woes.
"I am gonna send out an all-points bulletin to anybody in the French Quarter or anywhere else," Gentry said after a 99-91 win at Smoothie King Center. "We need a voodoo doctor or something here. We've gotta find the bones under this place. We've got to do something, because this is becoming comical."
Injuries have caused Pelicans players to miss a total of 262 games this season, and the team has already shut down Anthony Davis (left knee), Quincy Pondexter (left knee), Tyreke Evans (right knee), Eric Gordon (right finger) and Bryce Dejean-Jones (right wrist) for the season. Ryan Anderson also missed his fifth straight game with a left groin injury, and Norris Cole was out for his 11th straight game with a lower-back injury.
The Pelicans have used 36 starting lineups this season, the most in the NBA.
"Every guy in the D-League right now is sitting by his phone going, 'Ohhhh-K. This might be my chance,'" Gentry said with a laugh. "What are we gonna do?"
The Pelicans picked up Jordan Hamilton from the D-League this week on a 10-day contract. Tim Frazier had one 10-day period before signing for the rest of the season on Saturday. Dejean-Jones had two 10-day stints before signing his first long-term NBA contract on Feb. 19. He was ruled out for the rest of the season one week later.
"We had more people in our [team] picture than the Saints did," Gentry said.
Holiday, in his first game back after missing two straight with a left toe injury, was sidelined after being struck in the face by Kristaps Porzingis with 56.1 seconds left. Holiday was observed bleeding from a cut under his right eye after the game, and Gentry said Holiday will need to have his orbital socket examined.
"It's frightening because we needed to add another ball handler in the game, and I look down the bench and we had [centers] Omer [Asik], [Kendrick Perkins] and Alexis [Ajinca] there," Gentry said. "I didn't really feel comfortable with them as a ball handler in the game.
"I don't know, I think you've got to laugh at it. I don't know what more we can do. We now have over 100 points a game sitting out. If we score seven the next game, just understand it."
With 51.2 seconds left in Monday's game, a young fan walked on the court and gave Knicks star Carmelo Anthony a hug. Gentry first said the moment was "great."
"Got to be careful, though," Gentry joked. "He could slip and fall and hurt himself, OK?"