The Sacramento Kings suffered another tough loss last night at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder which brought their record to 3-12 on the season. The Kings have already faced the Thunder three times in their first 15 games and are unsurprisingly 0-3 against the defending champs. They were without All Star center Domantas Sabonis on Wednesday and will likely be without him for at least the next 3-4 weeks according to ESPN.
Sabonis missed the Thunder matchup with “knee soreness” but it was revealed that he had a torn meniscus in his left knee and likely will be out of the lineup until January. The veteran center started the season on the injured list with a hamstring strain and also missed two games with a rib injury so this is just further misery in an already difficult year.
The Kings signed Precious Achiuwa after the start of the season to provide some frontcourt depth and he will likely partially take on the role of starting center in the meantime. Drew Eubanks is also an option and he was in the starting lineup against OKC and played 23 minutes in the loss. Fans can also expect to see rookie center Dylan Cardwell thrown in the mix as he was a part-time starter early in the season when Sabonis was out with his hamstring issue.
Dario Saric was another offseason addition that arrived in the Jonas Valanciunas trade with the Denver Nuggets but he has been a healthy scratch since October 26th. Saric, at least on paper, can bring some of the same offensive skillset that Sabonis brings to the table so head coach Doug Christie may look his way at some point to fill the void. Young forward Keegan Murray should be making his season debut sometime this week or early next which should help but this injury could not have come at a worse time for the Kings.
There are seasons when nothing seems to go your way and that is what the Kings are going through at the moment. Christie has been rolling out a new starting lineup nearly every night due to injury and that has had the expected negative affect on the team and their results on the court. The Kings will be hoping to at least tread water in the wake of this injury to their All-Star big man but the tide is rising very quickly and there appears to be no land in sight.
