Utah Jazz Fear Worst for Vince Williams Jr. Injury

The Utah Jazz suffered their third straight loss on Monday with a 20-point defeat on the road against the Houston Rockets. However, adding a loss to their record is the least of their concerns.

Vince Williams Jr. left Monday's game in Houston early in the second quarter after an apparent leg injury, and things are not looking good for the 25-year-old guard. Deseret News' Sarah Todd reported that the initial belief is that Williams Jr. suffered a "significant ACL injury" during Monday's game.

"Multiple sources believe that Utah Jazz guard Vince Williams Jr. suffered a significant ACL injury during the Jazz’s game against the Houston Rockets on Monday night. The fears are that he will be out for the rest of the season and is facing a very long recovery," Todd reported.

A possible ACL injury for Vince Williams Jr.

The Jazz just acquired Williams Jr. at the trade deadline in their blockbuster deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, which also brought them All-Star forward Jaren Jackson Jr., who is expected to miss the rest of the season. Now, on the same day that starting center Jusuf Nurkic was ruled out for the season, Williams Jr. might have suffered a season-ending injury as well.

If Williams Jr. is out for the season, he will be joining Nurkic, Jackson Jr., and Walker Kessler in that department. Utah's injury struggles have been off the charts this season, and a significant ACL injury for their newly acquired guard is the icing on the cake.

Williams Jr. is set to have an MRI on Tuesday, but head coach Will Hardy said, “It doesn’t look great."

Silver needs to suspend Tari Eason for the whole season for this pic.twitter.com/mX55gGIKRX https://t.co/F5ctloTc7s
— jose ☔️ (@KlayForTrey) February 24, 2026

The injury happened on a play in which Rockets forward Tari Eason gave Williams Jr. an unnecessary push as they were running down the court, and fans stormed to social media to demand repercussions for Eason.

“I‘ve known Vince for a little bit and he’s just a really good dude, hard working dude,” Eason said after the game. “It was just respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I know it’s his contract year ... I didn’t intend on doing anything. My intentions are always just to play hard. So I went to go holler and just check on him. Obviously nothing helps, but just tell him that I apologize. You know, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody.”

Williams Jr. has already had his fair share of injuries through the first three years of his NBA career, so adding a potential ACL injury in year four is a very unfortunate situation. While it was a cheap play by Eason, it is a freak accident that it resulted in an ACL injury.

The Jazz can hope for the best ahead of his MRI on Tuesday.