PJ Washington joins Hornets’ injury list. Have we seen the last of him this season?

A familiar face was spotted in the same place wearing a similar leather outfit, complete with the backward kangol-style derby hat and all.

But the larger frame was a dead-give away this wasn’t Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan. Instead, it was a well-liked former Charlotte assistant coach who spent the last six years leading Georgetown men’s basketball.

Patrick Ewing isn’t even on the Hornets’ roster, yet he fit right in on the bench since most of their veteran players are donning street clutches these days. And that section might get even more crowded with PJ Washington the latest to join the walking wounded in a season of seemingly never-ending injuries.

Washington exited the Hornets’ 121-91 loss to Chicago at Spectrum Center on Friday night with a sprained right ankle, meaning the versatile big man’s season could have potentially come to a screeching halt just as he was turning in some of the best performances of his career. He left the game early in the second quarter, limping to the locker room accompanied by Joe Sharpe, the Hornets’ director of healthcare and sports performance, after posting eight point, two rebounds and two assists in a shade under 12 minutes.

“I thought he was off to a good start again,” coach Steve Clifford said. “So, again, it’s part of it. It’s part of the game.”

Washington has been their most durable player all season, missing only one game due to the birth of his child, and is essentially the Hornets’ lone veteran still active with Gordon Hayward, Terry Rozier, Kelly Oubre and Dennis Smith Jr. each sidelined nursing ailments.

His absence magnified the Hornets’ current situation: At one point in the second quarter against the Bulls, they trotted a quintet out featuring nothing but players who’ve spent time in the G League with the Greensboro Swarm over the past few months. That included James Bouknight, who led the Hornets with 22 points and netted a career-high-tying six 3-pointers.

“We all want to play,” Bouknight said. “We all want to be able to help the team win. We all want to be up here. It’s dope to see that. A bunch of us playing in the G League, then being able to come up here and get an opportunity, just being able to go there and take advantage.”

As if the injury isn’t difficult enough to stomach for Washington, it probably couldn’t have come at a worse time. Washington is averaging a career-high 15.8 points, a significant achievement given he was searching for more consistency in his fourth season heading into restricted free agency this summer.

He had just torched Oklahoma City for a career-high 43 points on a personal best 16 made field goals two nights earlier. In fact, Washington became the third player in franchise history to record at least 40 points, five rebounds, five assists and also connect on five 3-pointers, joining Kemba Walker and Devonte’ Graham.

The 24-year-old is also the 28th player in NBA history to post multiple career games with at least 40 points on 66.6% percent shooting and also five made 3-pointers. And of the 47 players to attempt at least 50 shots this season in clutch time — that’s when the score is within five points with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter — Washington ranks fourth in field-goal percentage, and his 52.4 showing trails only Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Washington’s Bradley Beal and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.

In short, with a potentially hefty payday looming in a few months, Washington has come through and solidified things at power forward for the Hornets.

“He’s been great,” Clifford said. “We’re playing through him more, and he’s guarding the other team’s better players now. … He played well the whole game the other night, but the fourth quarter you couldn’t play better than he played. We had a stretch there where we ran through him seven straight possessions and scored on six of them. He scored or assisted or made the play on every one of them.

“It’s good and his whole attitude even in practice (is) about being verbal, very verbal defensively and trying to help guys out. … You need somebody like PJ in there to help organize everybody with that.”

The Hornets might not have Washington’s wisdom on the floor for their remaining four games, though. He’s probably now in the same category as their other veterans who haven’t suited up recently.

“It’s tough,” Bouknight said. “That’s just what comes with this. It’s tough. I know that everybody is going to bounce back and I don’t worry that it’s going to hurt anyone long term. It definitely sucks just to see everyone out injured. But like I said I don’t doubt that anyone is going to come back fully healthy and better than they were before they were injured.”