Update on Kings guard Malik Monk’s injury going into game vs. Spurs. How serious is it?
Kings guard Malik Monk has been ruled out for Monday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs after suffering an ankle injury in Sunday’s win over the Phoenix Suns.
Monk sprained his right ankle in a 127-118 overtime victory over the Suns at Footprint Center in Phoenix. He will be unavailable when the Kings face the Spurs on Monday at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
The Kings lost Monk when he went down early in the second quarter on Sunday’s game. Monk appeared to have rolled his right ankle when he stepped on Mason Plumlee’s foot while trying to get around a screen.
After being helped to his feet, Monk hobbled off the floor and headed straight to the locker room with members of the team’s medical staff. A short time later, the Kings announced Monk would not return.
The Kings are now bracing for the possibility of Monk missing multiple games due to the injury.
“He’s had a great season for us so far,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “He’s another ballhandler, playmaker (and) defensively he’s been doing a fantastic job, and to lose somebody as dynamic as him, it’s tough, but ... next man up. We have to have a next-man-up mentality.”
Monk is averaging 13.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists in his eighth NBA season. He starred at Kentucky with Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox before coming into the league as the 11th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft.
This is Monk’s third season with the Kings. He agreed to stay in Sacramento over the summer, signing a new four-year, $78 million contract.
Monk was the runner-up for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award last season after averaging a career-high 15.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and a career-best 5.1 assists. Monk missed the last nine games of the regular season and two play-in games after spraining his right MCL in a game against the Dallas Mavericks.
“Malik is obviously big for us,” Fox said. “He’s a sixth starter. He can start for a lot of teams, and obviously I don’t know the significance of the injury yet, if he is out for some time, obviously like last year, it hurt us big time. Obviously, adding someone like DeMar (DeRozan) kind of helps if someone does go down, so as a team we have to step up and continue doing what we’re doing defensively.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 1:00 PM.
