Paul Pierce will be out until January with a fractured middle finger.
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Paul Pierce’s first season in Brooklyn just keeps getting worse.
The team announced Monday morning the small forward will be out two to four weeks with a nondisplaced fracture of the third metacarpal (middle finger) in his right hand.
Pierce suffered the injury in the first half of last Friday’s game against the Rockets. Pierce played just 15 minutes in the game and shot 1-of-6 from the field and 0-of-3 from behind the arc.
He did not play in Saturday’s win over Memphis with what was termed a bruised right hand at the time.
The injury is just the latest problem for a Nets season which has gone wrong right from the start. Brooklyn is 5-12 on the season and had lost seven of eight games before the win over the Grizzlies.
Pierce had been one of the healthier players on a team filled with injuries. He played in 15 of the 16 games this season before suffering the injury.
However, he’s only averaging 12.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this season. The 36-year-old forward hasn’t scored fewer than 16.5 points per game in a season in his career. And that was his rookie season. He averaged 18.6 points per game last season, in his last year in Boston.
The injury means Pierce will miss the Dec. 10 matchup with the Celtics. Pierce spent the first 15 years of his career in Boston. He will presumably be healthy for his Jan. 26 return to Boston.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports.
