We saw a gruesome visual unfold on our screens tonight during the game between the Sacramento Kings and the Memphis Grizzlies. Both teams are hungry to make the most of their regular season and guarantee a deep playoff run by gaining some momentum. But it seems this zeal on both ends may have cost the Kings’ Domantas Sabonis.

The 2nd generation NBA player suffered a brutal injury in the first quarter of tonight’s Grizzlies game. This happened off-the-ball when Sabonis went to guard Luke Kennard. Luke, unaware of how close Domantas was to him, snapped to turn around and as he did, he struck Sabonis’ face with the back of his head.

The damage was immediately apparent as Sabonis suffered a huge laceration on his eyebrow. A bloodied Sabonis then headed to the Kings’ locker room to receive treatment.

He came back onto the court since then. But things went awry for him almost immediately. He landed on and rolled his ankle very awkwardly after attempting a layup. This injury looked bad as his teammates helped him to get to the locker room. And the Kings have confirmed that Sabonis will not return for the rest of the game.

At the post-game press conference, his teammates weighed in on his injury. “Domantas is strong. He’ll probably be back sooner than we think,” said Malik Monk. However, Zach LaVine believed that it was better to err on the side of caution considering the Lithuanian-American star was already injured. “We need to make sure that he doesn’t rush back and takes care of himself. Cause we’re gonna need him in the long run,” said Zach.

And he’s right, you know. This new injury does not bode well for Sabonis at all since he was already a hamstring issue before tonight’s game. After all, reaggravating that injury forced him out of the Suns game midway even though he wanted to play on. And the Kings’ big man made some telling admissions about his fitness before tonight’s game.

Domantas Sabonis was candid about playing through injury ahead of the Grizzlies game

The Sacramento Kings were beaten soundly by the Phoenix Suns in their last NBA game. This was Domantas Sabonis’ first game back after missing 6 games through a hamstring injury. However, his triple-double and even the Kings’ loss were overshadowed by the fans’ concerns for him after he appeared to reaggravate his injured hamstring in the fourth quarter.

Following the game, head coach Doug Christie remained optimistic while reiterating how important Domantas was to the Kings’ success. “You are way too important to us…Hopefully, it was nothing,” said Christie. And thankfully we found out that it was no big deal as evidenced by Sabonis’ appearance against the Grizzlies tonight. Even so, Domantas isn’t being too carefree about this situation. And he made this clear as he spoke to the media during a Kings practice on Sunday.

“Being smart, being on top of it. I can play through a lot of injuries, [but] this is one you don’t have a lot of control [over]. So it was definitely new territory for me.” said Sabonis. He was asked whether he would change anything in his game as he deals with this injury while the season continues.

The Kings have struggled a lot whenever Sabonis isn’t on the court with them. They’re 3-6 in the games where he’s been out. Losing the NBA’s top rebounder from your ranks will do that to a team, though. They will need Sabonis healthy moving forward if they want to clinch a playoff spot. And snapping their 4-game losing streak against the Grizzlies tonight will be the perfect start towards that goal!

However, all of that is up in the air after Sabonis rolled his ankle in tonight’s game. Even if the Kings do win this game, they will sorely miss Domantas’ commanding presence as they take on the best regular season team, the Cleveland Cavaliers next.