NBA insider provides update on Brandon Ingram injury

Despite losing Brandon Ingram to a knee injury, the Pelicans have sustained their triumphant ways, winning their last two games without the star forward and eight of their last 10. 

Yet, the Pelicans need Ingram if they hope to make a deep postseason run. The former Duke product is much too important to New Orleans' schemes on both ends of the floor, and his 20.9 points, 5.8 assists and 5.1 rebounds per night can't be replaced easily — even by committee.

With the playoffs less than a month away, will the Pelicans have Ingram back in time? On Monday's "Run it Back" on FanDuel TV, NBA insider Shams Charania provided an update on Ingram's injury. 

"It could have been a lot worse when he hyperextended that knee," Charania said. "He's got a bone bruise in that knee. He's going to be out two weeks, maybe three. The hope is that as April starts to get going, he'll be back in the lineup." 

In Ingram's absence, Pelicans coach Willie Green has called upon third-year wing Trey Murphy III as the starting small forward. Murphy has averaged 11 points, eight rebounds and 2.5 assists since Ingram went down with an injury. 

While those numbers don't jump off the screen, Murphy has held his own as a perimeter defender, giving Jimmy Butler a lot of trouble when the Pels traveled to Miami last week. Furthermore, Murphy is a certified long-range sniper who's making 3.7 threes per game at a nice clip of 41 percent in the month of March. He's definitely capable of holding down the fort until Ingram's return. 

If the NBA playoffs were to start today, the fourth-seeded Pelicans would play a first-round series against the fifth-seeded Clippers. Although the more experienced Clippers would go into that series as the favorites, the Pelicans won their regular-season series 3-1, and therefore hold the tiebreaker if the teams were to finish with an identical record.