Grizzlies' Conley talks about his severe facial injury, and it's not pretty

Mike Conley is back where he belongs, playing point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies as they fight off elimination against the Golden State Warriors.

Following the multiple facial fractures he suffered in Game 3 of the Grizzlies' first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, Conley opened up to Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney about his recovery, which cost him three playoff games.

While the inadvertent elbow he took to the face from C.J. McCollum almost looked innocuous at first, Conley described a scary moment where the ringing in his ears was deafening and blood poured from his nose, despite no direct contact coming with his nose. He spent a night in a Portland hospital before returning to Memphis for facial surgery.

Then came the immediate recovery period, which sounds like a special kind of hell.

As Mahoney describes it:

Conley's jaw was in such a state that he could only attempt to eat tiny servings of apple sauce. It would have to do. He ate what he could and followed the rules to the letter. His body had other plans; whether due to how little he could choke down, the strength of his painkiller's dosage, or a combination thereof, Conley spent his night revisiting every bit of food or drink he dared to put in his system.

"That night, I was throwing up," Conley said. "And every time I threw up - because when you do it, you can't really control this - I'd have to open my mouth. It would just kill me because I couldn't really open my mouth. Then, all of a sudden, blood would come out of my nose and I was like 'I think I'm dying.' It was crazy."

Conley spent most of this time in the dark, incredibly sensitive to light, an issue that kept him out of Game 1 of the Warriors series. Still, he was able to return to playoff action in 10 days after the injury.