WELL SHIT: De'Aaron Fox Reportedly Has a Fractured Index Finger On His Shooting Hand And Is Doubtful For Game 5

Ezra Shaw. Getty Images.

God dammit. From Giannis to Tyler Herro to Kawhi Leonard to Joel Embiid to Ja Morant to Victor Oladipo to now De'Aaron Fox, this first round has been absolutely BRUTAL when it comes to injuries. It all sucks. If you're curious when this happened, this looks to be the play

It goes without saying what a massive loss this would be for the Kings given that Fox is their best player, especially late in games. Even if the loss yesterday, Fox was still awesome as he went blow for blow with Steph Curry down the stretch

In a year where Fox is playing the best basketball of his life, you have to feel for the guy. The Kings are having a dream season and are in this series largely because of De'Aaron Fox, so for the Injury Gods to potentially rob us of more is very unfortunate. Not taking advantage of their 2-0 lead was already an issue, but now having to potentially finish it out with Fox or best case a very hampered Fox? Well this series suddenly looks entirely different.

I know the Kings have 2 of the next 3 at home and the Warriors are one of the worst road teams in the league, but you subtract De'Aaron Fox from the equation and that obviously changes things. The Warriors defense can already lock in at an elite level, now they get to defend the Kings without their best shot creator. How many times late in games did we see the Kings just give the ball to Fox and get out of his way? It all just sucks.

There's also the reality that things are kind of breaking the Warriors' way…again. Last year they started with the Nuggets who were obviously without Jamal Murray and MPJ. Then in the next series, Ja Morant got hurt after averaging 38 a game and that was it. They got a banged up Robert Williams/Jayson Tatum in the Finals. Now here we are again. It's one thing that the Steve Kerr challenge and the Steph pulling a Chris Webber thing didn't bury them in Game 4, but now they get this break too?. Do they have a deal with the Devil or something? How does this keep happening for them?

In reality, this is the NBA playoffs. You can look at every title winner dating back decades and you'll see the same thing. Injuries are part of the story. Very rarely do we see the eventual champ not get some sort of injury prayer, that's just how things go. It's just such a bummer that a series as entertaining as GS/SAC has been, and with everything at stake over the final 3 games, that the Kings get hit with this type of news. Between PHX/LAC, MEM/LAL, and now GS/SAC, injuries have completely taken over each series. I'm not just talking injuries to rotation or bench players either. I'm talking the stars, the franchise guys, the ones we all tuned in to see.

Game 5 was pretty much already a must win game for the Kings, and now that just became a whole lot more difficult. It feels a little crazy to suggest a guy will play with a fractured finger on his shooting hand, but I wonder if it's just a pain tolerance thing if Fox ends up at least trying. Maybe stick it in the Beam and see if that thing has healing powers or something. At this point, you have to try anything and everything.