Kiwi centre Steven Adams lasted just two minutes, before he was body-slammed out of Oklahoma City Thunder's win over Houston Rockets on Tuesday (NZ time).
As the seven-footer (2.13m) battled for an offensive rebound, he became entangled with Rockets counterpart Clint Capela, who appeared to crash into Adams and knock him to the floor heavily.
Referees eventually awarded a flagrant foul against Capela. Adams slowly picked himself up and missed two free throws, before hobbling to the locker-room.
He was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game with an ankle injury.
The Kiwi has been in the wars lately, missing a game last week with a knee injury.
Oklahoma City fell 17 points behind Houston during the third quarter and still trailled by 15 with seven minutes left to play, before scoring 13 straight points down the stretch to snatch a 112-107 win.
Former Thunder guard Russell Westbrook had a 'triple double' of 32 points/12 assists/11 rebounds, against his old outfit, but veteran Chris Paul - who came to OKC in the Westbrook trade - led the winning surge with 28 points.
Oklahoma City's second victory over Houston in as many weeks took them to 25 wins, 19 losses for the season - good for seventh in the Western Conference.
Adams is regarded as questionable for their next outing against Orlando Magic on Thursday (NZ time).
