Still no word on Hornets’ injured big men, so who fills in for them against Chicago?

Visual confirmation of Cody Zeller’s torn meniscus came Friday morning at the Spectrum Center following Hornets shootaround. Zeller, who is out indefinitely, limped out of the locker room under an extra-large pair of crutches and with a brace around his injured left knee. As he walked by, Zeller was smiling and said he “feels great.”

“Cody would be crawling out of here with no legs attached to him saying he’s fine,” forward Marvin Williams said. “He’s honestly one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around.

“He takes his bumps and bruises for it, but it’s a testament to how hard he plays.”

Zeller injured his knee in the second half of Wednesday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, and the team hasn’t announced whether the 7-foot, 240-pound center will have a procedue on the knee. But Zeller wasn’t the only big man injured Wednesday. Frank Kaminsky sprained his ankle and will miss Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls. He is day-to-day.

Associate head coach Stephen Silas – who is filling in for Hornets coach Steve Clifford, currently away from the team dealing with his own health issues – said the team doesn’t know how long either player will be out.

“Just basically what we saw on the release yesterday is what we know,” Silas said. “Both guys will be out tonight, and we just have to wait and see the results, hopefully they’re in our favor.”

At least for Friday’s game, Silas said he expects center Dwight Howard and Williams will have to play more minutes than usual. Johnny O’Bryant will fill in as the team’s backup center and Treveon Graham will play backup power forward. The team also called up Mangok Mathiang from the Greensboro Swarm as a reserve.

O’Bryant is averaging 8.7 minutes per game and Graham is averaging 17.2.

Graham, whose versatility means he might also play some on the wing, said he’s prepared for a minutes increase.

“Staying conditioned, always being in the weight room, so when I do go out there, I’m loose and conditioned,” Graham said. “Just watching Marvin, Frank and the guys that are in that position, just to know what they do.”

While there’s never an optimal time for injuries, this certainly isn’t a good situation for the Hornets, whose record is 9-14. Friday, they’ll face the Bulls (3-20), who, albeit having the worst record in the Eastern Conference, torched the Hornets from 3 in their first meeting this season and won 123-120.

In that game, Chicago made 17 of 34 3-pointers, easily its best perimeter performance this season. The Bulls are tied for 26th in the league in 3-point shooting, making 34.2 percent of their tries.

“They shoot a bunch of 3’s, but they’re not necessarily known as a team that makes a bunch of 3’s,” Silas said. “Our defense has to be a lot better. Our close-outs have to be a lot better.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Still no word on Hornets’ injured big men, so who fills in for them against Chicago?."