A nasty injury for Jarred Vanderbilt may have not just ruled him out for the game, but for an extended time.
In the second quarter of Tuesday’s Game 1, Vando tried to block a fastbreak dunk attempt by Chet Holmgren and, in the process, smacked the backboard with his hand. He immediately doubled over in very obvious pain and exited the game.
While the injury was never shown, the reaction of the OKC bench after the injury gives an idea of how nasty it was.
During halftime, the Lakers ruled out Vando for the remainder of the game.
The obvious concern would be a dislocated or broken finger. Given the Thunder bench’s reaction, it could be a pretty nasty dislocation.
The Lakers already don’t have much in the way of forwards as is, so losing Vando against an OKC with lots of them is a blow. If it is a dislocation, which it sure looks to be, then it’s also likely not just a one-game injury either.
That it’s on his non-shooting hand might help the situation, but it seems more likely the Lakers are going to have to figure out a new plan and potentially insert someone else into the rotation in Vando’s spot moving forward.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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