We now know why players from USA Basketball and Lithuania almost came to blows after their semifinal matchup in the FIBA World Cup in Spain the other night.
According to Sam Amick of USA Today, Kings guard Rudy Gay suffered a fractured jaw and a chipped tooth after taking an elbow to the face in the third quarter of that blowout win.
“I’ve got a fracture in my jaw, a broken tooth and am going to probably need a root canal,” Gay told USA TODAY Sports. “The top is where I got hit. It’s painful. It’s uncomfortable, and it still bleeds, so I’ve got to continuously gargle. It is what it is, man.”
Gay had to leave the game, but wanted to address it during the postgame hand shakes. That’s when the shoving match ensued.
“I think (the elbow) had a little bit to do with (the situation afterward),” Gay said. “It was a dirty play, man. It was a dirty play.”
