The Kings forward's injury is more severe than first reported.
Thursday's semifinal matchup against Lithuania was a hard-nosed and chippy affair, and it even resulted in a bit of a yelling skirmish during the post-game handshake line.
Rudy Gay got hit especially hard late in the game when he took an elbow to his mouth as he was taking it into the basket. Gay was knocked to the floor and immediately had to exit the game. While initial reports seemed to indicate that Gay was fine and may have just suffered a chipped tooth, Gay told USA Today's Sam Amick that it was a little more serious than that:
"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 ended up having to get dental work done until 2 a.m. the morning after the game before he could rejoin the team on the way to Madrid. Fortunately he's still able to go for Sunday's final match and hopefully will have a Gold Medal to lift his spirits, although he probably won't be biting down on it to make sure it's real any time soon.