With a little over a month to go before the postseason begins, contending teams can ill-afford major injuries to some of their most important players. However, during their Friday night clash against the Denver Nuggets, the Memphis Grizzlies lost one of their crucial rotation players after Brandon Clarke went down with a non-contact injury.

With only 9.1 seconds left in the first quarter, Clarke found himself on the foul line with a chance to tie the game. After making the first free throw, Clarke proceeded to clank the second one. The Grizzlies big man seemed to know that the shot was off, so he scampered off the charity stripe to try and snatch an offensive board.

In the aftermath of that offensive rebound attempt, however, Brandon Clarke tweaked his left leg. He made an admirable attempt to power through and get back on defense, but he only managed to limp for a short distance before falling on the ground. Clarke immediately clutched his left leg, and he had to receive help from Steven Adams and David Roddy in getting back to the locker room.

Clarke played in just two minutes, finishing with one point and one board before exiting the game for good due to injury. The non-contact nature of the injury will be a major cause for concern for the Grizzlies brass, as those tend to portend long-term injuries.

At the time of writing, however, the Grizzlies have let their game against the only team they're looking up to in the Western Conference standings get away from them. With around three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies have now fallen behind by 17, 107-90, to the Nuggets despite Ja Morant and Desmond Bane's best efforts to trim the gap between them and the conference leaders.

Brandon Clarke's absence depletes the Grizzlies' already-shorthanded frontline with Steven Adams currently on the mend due to a knee injury of his own. If Clarke were to miss a prolonged period of time due to injury, the Grizzlies will have to rely heavily on Santi Aldama to fill in the backup big man minutes. Xavier Tillman should see extended run as well.