Steve Clifford hospitalized, could miss game vs Knicks; Al Jefferson out

The Bobcats announced that head coach Steve Clifford was hospitalized overnight for an undisclosed illness, per the team's press release. Whether he will coach or not tonight will be announced later. Of course we wish Clifford a speedy recovery and to take whatever actions necessary to do that.

The Bobcats also said that if Clifford can't coach tonight then assistant coach Patrick Ewing will be the acting head coach for the game. I'm sure Ewing can manage the game enough in Clifford's absence, he's been an assistant coach for a long time.

In other injury-related news, the Bobcats have played all but one game of the regular season without Al Jefferson and it looks like they're gonna have to do so again tonight. Jefferson is apparently still feeling the ill effects of his ankle sprain from the first week of the preseason, which has kept him out of every game except for the season opener. As much as it bums us all out to hear that Jefferson will have to miss another game, the Bobcats have had a fine start without him so no need to push the panic button and rush him back out.