Walker suffered the injury during a third-quarter play on which he drove toward the basket and turned his left ankle. He appeared to be in serious pain at the time of the injury and needed the help of teammates to get off the court and to the locker room.

The Bobcats continued on to play into overtime without Walker, who could not  return to the game after his ankle injury. Walker underwent an X-Ray during the game and results came back negative.

On Sunday morning Walker underwent an MRI on his sprained left ankle, which revealed the severity of the injury. Walker was in a wheelchair and had a boot on his left foot prior to having the MRI on his ankle.

Walker had played all 42 for the Bobcats and appeared in 190 consecutive games before this injury, which is a Bobcats franchise record. He averaged team highs of 18.7 points, 5.0 assists, 1.4 steals and 35.7 minutes, and added 4.2 rebounds.


WEST, MALONE FINED


Pacers forward David West has been fined $15,000 for elbowing the Clippers' Blake Griffin in the jaw.

West was assessed a flagrant 2 and ejected at the end of the first half of Indiana's 106-92 win Saturday. The NBA announced the fine Sunday.

The league also fined Kings coach Michael Malone $25,000 for screaming at official Marc Davis after Sacramento's 91-90 loss to the Grizzlies on Friday.

Davis called a jump ball instead of a foul against Memphis with 1.9 seconds left and Sacramento trailing by a point, and the Grizzlies won the jump ball.

Malone was fined for verbal abuse of an official and not proceeding directly to his locker room after the game ended.


PISTONS PROBLEMS


It was a night when the Detroit Pistons had a real chance to make a statement — to their own fans as much as anyone.

There was finally a bit of a buzz at the Palace — but that was mostly because of the presence of Utah rookie Trey Burke, who was a college star at Michigan before being passed over by the Pistons in last year's draft. With Burke in the opposing lineup and a decent crowd in attendance, Detroit had an opportunity to earn a little respect.

Instead, the Pistons lost by 21 in one of their most listless performances of the season.

"There's a lot of things that went wrong," guard Will Bynum said. "After having a week full of great practices . to come out and play like this, it was disappointing."

Detroit is actually in position to make the playoffs, because most of the Eastern Conference is mired in mediocrity at the moment — but the Pistons have still been one of the NBA's most perplexing teams this season. Detroit is 17-23, only two games better than at this point in 2012-13. That's good enough for a spot among the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference right now, but after the Pistons added Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings in the offseason, fans were hoping for more.

There was always going to be an adjustment period after so many significant changes — new coach Maurice Cheeks was also added during the offseason. But this season is now about half over, and it's fair to wonder if this new-look roster will need another makeover before the stretch run.

After their poor performance at home against Utah on Friday night, the Pistons went on the road and beat Washington 104-98 for their third win in four games. Smith had 22 points and eight rebounds.

"It was a disappointing and embarrassing loss last night and we wanted to be able to come in and give as much energy as possible to beat a hot Wizards team," Smith said after Saturday's win. "They've been winning as of late, they have a pretty good team over there and we just wanted to be able to come in and match that intensity."

Contributors: DeAntae Prince, The Associated Press