Yesterday (Saturday, March 30) was a bad day for the Sacramento Kings, one of the dark horse teams in the West with a colorful and effective fighting style in the last two seasons.
Not only did they lose 4 points to direct competitor Dallas Mavericks for a spot in the top-6 rankings right at home, Sacramento also lost Malik Monk to a knee injury in an extremely unlucky way.
In his attempt to defend Luka Doncic, Malik Monk lost momentum and fell. Unfortunately, right after that, Doncic fell on Monk’s leg and the Kings defender was in pain.
Monk appeared happy and quite positive in the locker room after the match, but his condition was not good. Reporters saw the defender born in 1998 limping out of the stadium with extremely difficult steps.
As of today (March 31), reputable journalist Adrian Wojnarowski has confirmed that Malik Monk has stretched the MCL ligament in his right knee and will need to miss 4-6 weeks.
This is the Sacramento Kings’ third injury since the All-Star break, also three extremely important players in coach Mike Brown’s army.
The two previous names include key reserve big man Trey Lyles (knee MCL ligament) and point guard Kevin Huerter (torn shoulder meniscus). If Huerter is the Kings’ starting SG, Monk and Lyles are usually the first two reserve players called to replace.
This shows that the loss that the Sacramento Kings have suffered in terms of personnel is extremely large, especially right when they are racing to lock in their spot in the Playoffs. But of the three names mentioned above, Malik Monk will leave the biggest hole. The 26-year-old defender is averaging 15.4 points with 5.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.
He ranked first in the entire NBA in points scored and assists when coming off the bench, becoming one of the brightest candidates for the 6th Man of The Year title.
And although he did not play from the beginning, Monk was often the one chosen to stay on the field to finish the match alongside Domantas Sabonis or De’Aaron Fox, taking advantage of his ability to break through and throw quite well.
Highlights of Malik Monk’s season-high 39 points this season 1 month ago
Losing another important pillar, Sacramento Kings will enter the difficult last 2 weeks of the Regular Season with the goal of closing tickets to the Playoffs.
They missed the opportunity to jump into the top-6 to get a spot to go straight to the Playoffs after a double defeat against the Dallas Mavericks, now falling to 8th place and in the group that has to compete in the Play-in.
Right behind Sacramento (42-31) is the Los Angeles Lakers (41-33), the team that just stumbled against the Indiana Pacers and lost their 5-match unbeaten streak.
