Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III ‘feeling good,’ but when will he return from injury?
Power forward Marvin Bagley III is walking without a limp and does not appear to be feeling any discomfort, but it’s still unclear when the prized rookie will return to the floor for the Kings.
Bagley has missed the past two games with a sprained left knee and was not expected to be in uniform when the Kings played the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center. Bagley declined to answer questions about his knee Monday but said he’s “feeling good” and looking forward to getting back on the court to help his team make a playoff push in the final weeks of the regular season.
“It’s a tight race,” Bagley said. “We’ve got time to get better still and move into this playoff spot, so we’ve just got to keep at it and keep locking in.
“Obviously, I love being out there with my teammates, so it’s hard not being there to help them through this last push, as of now. It always bothers me when I’m not playing, but I’ll be back out there and we’re going to finish strong.”
The Kings (32-31) were three games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff race going into Wednesday’s game against the Celtics (39-26), who were missing point guard Kyrie Irving due to a left thigh contusion. The Kings would have a better chance of catching the Spurs with Bagley, who averaged 17.1 points and 9.1 rebounds in his last 15 games.
Bagley sustained the injury in an overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 27. The following day, the team announced that an MRI revealed no further damage, saying Bagley would be reevaluated in 7 to 14 days. The 7-day mark came and went Wednesday with no word on his recovery.
“I pray that he comes back,” Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein said. “We’re going to need him for the run. He’s a big spark off the bench, so when you don’t have that, you look for it somewhere else. Right now, it’s about routine. How can we keep our same routine without changing up stuff? So it’s big that we don’t have him right now because now you’ve got to find a different route, instead of a route that we know works.
“Now, it’s like next man up and find a different route to the same outcome — that’s if he doesn’t come back. If he does come back, we’re right back to the same thing we were doing before, and he’s a little fresher.”
