Before Kevin Martin even knew the fate of his ailing left ankle, he knew he was facing a tough decision.

"I want to be on that court and to play for this team right now," the Kings shooting guard said after Monday's practice. "It's on a different level with how bad I want to be out there. … I've been playing with my ankle being bad. But after last night, it's time to be smart a little bit. It's time to be smart now."

The wise move, as it turns out, will sideline Martin for seven to 10 days.

The decision to rest rather than force a quicker recovery came after Martin had an MRI on Monday that confirmed the sprain. Martin sprained the ankle against Memphis on Wednesday, missed practice Thursday and played Friday despite being "60 percent," as he had said.

But when he hit the floor on Sunday against Golden State, the percentage and his outlook took a drastic and painful downward turn. After driving through the paint and jumping on a shot attempt, Golden State's Andris Biedrins bumped Martin and his landing was askew. The moment, Martin had no problem admitting, was an emotional one.

As he went to the free-throw line and hit one of two before heading to the locker room, he wiped tears from his eyes. Until a postgame X-ray was negative, Martin – who missed 17 games last season with a groin strain – said he thought the ankle might have been broken.

"When I first went down, I was just thinking, 'Not this again,' " Martin said. "That's why I started crying, because I thought it was over. When I went over to the bench, I thought it was something (worse). It was pretty painful. I tried to walk it off, but it wasn't working."

Kings coach Reggie Theus said he has not decided who will start tonight against Detroit. His options were limited even before Martin went down, as swingman Francisco García (right calf strain) remains at least 10 days away from his return, and guard Quincy Douby (sore right ankle) is also out.

Theus could opt to go small with a lineup featuring guard Bobby Jackson in Martin's spot, or perhaps opt for the unconventional. Small forward John Salmons could take Martin's shooting-guard position, and forward Jason Thompson could fill in for Salmons at small forward while joining Mikki Moore, Brad Miller and Beno Udrih in the lineup. Either way, all involved have every reason to push their winning streak to four games.

With a win, they would be .500 for the first time since Dec. 4, 2006, when an Eric Musselman-led team was 8-8 after losing to Orlando. Theus said it's much more than a statistical oddity.

"I think it just would mean a lot to us personally and a lot to the direction of where we're headed with this team," he said. "It's a steppingstone, a building block. And (it shows) the direction of the franchise."

The philosophy was once disputed by the since-departed Ron Artest, the small forward who often concluded that striving for such mediocre milestones was the wrong approach. Martin and the rest of the current crop, however, seem to have embraced the reality of their situation.

"It's like coach always says, 'You've got to get to .500 before you can get to .600,'" Martin said. "Each win is going to build our confidence. And as you can tell by the way we're playing right now, we're just playing as a team.

"On that (0-4) road trip, we weren't really playing as a team.

"That's why we just want everything to go smooth right now and keep building it, because we need every game we can get."

Both with – and now – without him.

Read the Kings blog at www.sacbee.com/kingsblog.