DeAndre Jordan suffers nasty left ankle sprain after huge dunk vs. Kings

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer

With Lou Williams incinerating defenses, starters Blake Griffin and Milos Teodosic returning from injury, and a date with the West-worst Sacramento Kings, things appeared to be looking up for the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. So, naturally — because this is the Clippers, who are never allowed to have nice things for too long, and who must always be experiencing at least some kind of pain — another member of the Clippers was destined to go down before too long.

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This time, the victim was DeAndre Jordan, who experienced the cruel irony of suffering an injury while delivering one of his trademark vicious poster dunks with just over five minutes to go in the second quarter:

Jordan rolled through the lane and finished an alley-oop feed from Williams all over the back and head of Kings big man Skal Labissiere. As returned to earth, though, the 10-year veteran’s left foot came down on the back of Labissiere’s and then hit the court awkwardly, buckling to the side and sending the dunker to the deck. He stayed in the backcourt while the Kings ran the ball up on offense, struggling to get out of the paint and up to his feet.

Eventually, he hobbled to the Clipper bench; after a few minutes, he headed to the locker room, and that was the end of Mr. Jordan’s evening.

It remains to be seen just how severe the sprain is, and whether or not it will cost Jordan — one of the NBA’s most dependable iron men, having missed just eight games in the last seven seasons — any playing time. Still, after watching Jordan limp off in a season that’s already seen L.A. lose Griffin, Teodosic, Patrick Beverley, Danilo Gallinari and Austin Rivers for significant stretches, you’d have to imagine that the immediate reaction of this Clipper fan was shared by many more watching at home:

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Dan Devine is a writer and editor for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@oath.com or follow him on Twitter!