The Toronto Raptors had been humming along in New Orleans up big as halftime was approaching until they lost a key piece to their puzzle.
With just 44.9 seconds to play in the first half, Serge Ibaka came down on his teammate OG Anunoby's foot, rolling his right ankle. Ibaka left the game immediately struggling to put weight on what happens to be an injured right ankle.
Play-by-play voice Matt Devlin confirmed on the Raptors' broadcast that Ibaka was indeed out for the remainder of the game with a sprained right ankle. Kyle Lowry who also hurt himself in the first half would not return to the game dealing with a left thumb injury.
Lowry actually has a left thumb injury, and will not return. Ibaka has a sprained right ankle, and will not return.
— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 9, 2019
After the Raptors' win, head coach Nick Nurse described Ibaka's injury as a "severe" ankle injury, according to The Athletic's Eric Koreen.
Kyle Lowry has a small fracture in his left thumb. NOT related to previous injury.
— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 9, 2019
Ibaka has a severely sprained ankle, according to Nurse.
Not good.
His timetable to return has not been announced.
To this point in the season, Ibaka had been thriving in his newly defined role of sixth man for Toronto. Coming into Friday's contest with Pelicans he was averaging 14.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks shooting 52.6% from the field in 24.4 minutes per game.
Ibaka joined the Raptors in 2017 coming from the Orlando Magic in exchange for Terrence Ross and a 2017 first-round pick which turned into Anžejs Pasečņiks.
The 30-year-old is in the final year of his three-year $64 million contract.