{"id":71234,"date":"2024-03-30T19:23:36","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T23:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71234"},"modified":"2024-03-30T19:23:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T23:23:36","slug":"kings-malik-monk-sixth-man-year-candidate-worst-fears-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/30\/kings-malik-monk-sixth-man-year-candidate-worst-fears-confirmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings, Sixth Man of the Year Candidate\u2019s Worst Fears Confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Sacramento Kings\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/30\/sixth-man-of-the-year-favorite-feared-to-have-sprained-mcl-malik-monk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">worst fears were confirmed<\/a> on Saturday after ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that sixth man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/monkma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Malik Monk<\/a> suffered a sprained right MCL. Monk will be out for four to six weeks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ESPN Sources: Sacramento Kings G Malik Monk has suffered a sprained right MCL and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks. Monk \u2014 who\u2019s had a career-best season \u2014 needs a Kings run in the Western Conference playoffs to return this season. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5Q3isJ0U1N\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/5Q3isJ0U1N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1774197774428356716?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As a result, the Kings will likely need to make it to the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs before he returns. Per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/key-dates\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the 2023-24 schedule<\/a>, the regular season ends on Apr. 14, with the playoffs beginning on Apr. 20. The semifinal round begins on May 6-7 and could move up to May 4-5.<\/p>\n<h2>Kings, Malik Monk\u2019s Worst Fears Confirmed<\/h2>\n<p>Monk has been a key ingredient in Sacramento\u2019s success, averaging career-highs of 15.4 points and 5.1 assists per game. Monk also ranks second on the Kings in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/players\/clutch-traditional?PerMode=Totals&amp;TeamID=1610612758&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=PTS\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">total clutch points<\/a> (98). A projected <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/28\/timberwolves-naz-reid-nba-award-aspirations\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Sixth Man of the Year Award finalist<\/a>, Monk had only missed one game this season.<\/p>\n<p>Signing with Sacramento in the 2022 offseason to join forces with former college teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/foxde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a>, the Kings have gone 89-60 with Monk in the lineup. Just 1-5 without the 26-year-old, Sacramento will certainly feel his absence. With starting wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/huertke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Huerter<\/a> undergoing a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/29\/sacramento-kings-guard-to-miss-rest-of-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">season-ending shoulder surgery<\/a> this week, the Kings may have to get creative for the next month and a half.<\/p>\n<p>With nine games remaining in the regular season, Sacramento is now eighth in the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n<p>Just 4.0 games ahead of the eleventh-place Houston Rockets, who have won 11 games in a row, the Kings are in danger of being out of the playoffs completely. However, they\u2019re just 2.0 games behind the Dallas Mavericks, who have won six games in a row. With a strong finish, they\u2019ll secure their spot in the postseason for the second straight season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sacramento Kings\u2019 worst fears were confirmed on Saturday after ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that sixth man Malik Monk suffered a sprained right MCL. Monk will be out for four to six weeks. ESPN Sources: Sacramento Kings G Malik Monk has suffered a sprained right MCL and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks. Monk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1608,62,3],"tags":[700,4745],"class_list":["post-71234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-malik-monk","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}