Jarred Vanderbilt Suffers Gruesome Injury, Thunder Bench Horrified

It’s going to be a long series for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The purple and gold are going up against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, and they’ve got a lot going against them.

Last night, they added to that when one of their young stars, Jarred Vanderbilt, was injured on a defensive play. 

Midway through the second quarter, Vanderbilt went up to block a Chet Holmgren dunk, but instead he got all backboard. Replay shows his pinky getting smashed on the edge of the backboard, and he immediately came down from the air in pain.

The gruesome video shows his bone poking through his skin, and since it happened near the Thunder bench, all the opposing players looked on in shock and covered their mouths as they turned away.

Lakers medical staff covered the finger with a towel and immediately brought Vanderbilt to the locker room, where The Athletic says Paycom Center arena staffers could hear him scream in pain.

LeBron James commented on Vanderbilt’s freak injury, saying he’s no wuss, so he knows he must really be going through it.

“He’s tough as nails. So if Vando was in pain, then something actually really happened,” James said. “So, it sucks.”

The severity of the injury was confirmed by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania after the game, tweeting, “Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt has sustained a full dislocation of his right pinky finger in a gruesome injury tonight.”

He later added, “Vanderbilt needed stitches postgame because the bone in his dislocated pinky finger broke skin.”

Now that Vanderbilt’s likely out for the series, the deck’s stacked even higher against the Lakers.

Luka Doncic is already week-to-week with a hamstring injury he suffered last month, making 41-year-old James their first option. He was able to drop 27 points, but it was no match for Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who linked up for 42 points to beat the Lakers 108-90.

The Thunder have won all of their regular-season Lakers matchups by an average of 30 points, so this series might not get any better for them.

See social media’s reactions to the game and injury below.