Kings' Domantas Sabonis suffers right ankle injury in win against Grizzlies
Sabonis had already left the court to head to the locker room once earlier in the proceedings, after a first-quarter collision with Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard left him with a cut above his left eye. He'd return after getting it stitched up, scoring six points with four rebounds in 11 first-half minutes to help stake Sacramento to a double-digit lead at intermission.
In the opening minute of the third quarter, though, as Sabonis rolled to the rim after screening for teammate Zach LaVine, he stepped on the foot of Grizzlies defender Jaylen Wells, rolling his right ankle hard and instantly grasping for it as he crashed to the court in a heap:
The 28-year-old big man immediately signaled to the Kings' bench that he needed to come out of the game, and needed the help of teammates and coaches to get to his feet and hobble back to the Sacramento locker room. Shortly thereafter, the team ruled him out for the remainder of the game.
The Kings would rally without their starting center, riding red-hot shooting from beyond the 3-point arc and the playmaking of LaVine, Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan to build a lead that ballooned to 20 points in the fourth quarter and hold off the visiting Grizz for a 132-122 win. Sacramento improved to 34-33, remaining in ninth place in the Western Conference.
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Interim Kings coach Doug Christie, who looked shaken on the sideline in the moments after Sabonis' injury, told reporters after the game that he had no update on his star center's status. His teammates sounded an optimistic note about a player who, in LaVine's words, 'gets bumped and bruised because he plays so damn hard.'
'I'm always concerned when my teammate's not on the court,' Monk told reporters. 'I really didn't see the play until I looked up. It looked pretty bad. But Domas [is] strong. He'll probably be back sooner than we think.'
The Kings will certainly hope so. They enter Tuesday 3.5 games back of the eighth-place Clippers, two games ahead of 10th-place Dallas and three games up on 11th-place Phoenix; an extended absence for Sabonis could deal a serious blow to their chances of remaining in play-in position. (It could also harm the chances of Sabonis — an All-NBA Third Team selection in each of the last two seasons — reaching the 65-game threshold for inclusion in year-end awards voting.)
Sabonis is averaging 19.2 points, an NBA-leading 13.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 34.8 minutes per game, shooting 63% on 2-pointers and 42.5% from 3-point land. The only other player hitting those marks this season? MVP candidate Nikola Jokić — a similarly bruising point-center offensive hub to whom Sabonis' game is frequently compared.
While Sabonis' absence isn't quite as detrimental to Sacramento as Jokić's would be to the Nuggets — although, y'know, try telling the Warriors that — it's still considerable. For the season, the Kings have outscored opponents by 4.2 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions with Sabonis on the court, according to Cleaning the Glass, and have been outscored by 5.7 points-per-100 with him off of it.
That net-rating gap has narrowed somewhat since the Kings' roster-remaking trade deadline, which saw the franchise ship out Sabonis' running buddy De'Aaron Fox, shooting guard Kevin Huerter and lightly used reserves Jordan McLaughlin, Alex Len and Colby Jones and bring in not only LaVine, but also veteran center Jonas Valančiūnas and combo forward Jake LaRavia (who played on Monday like he had a bone to pick with the Grizzlies team that jettisoned him). Valančiūnas, a stalwart per-minute producer dating back to his days in Toronto, has put up 9.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists in just 19.5 minutes per game in Sacramento; the Kings are plus-27 in 321 minutes with Valančiūnas on the floor and Sabonis off of it, according to PBP Stats.
But even with Valančiūnas and the versatile Trey Lyles to plug the gap, the Kings are 31-27 with Sabonis in the lineup and just 3-6 in the nine games they've played without him; that includes four losses in six contests that he missed earlier this month with a left hamstring injury. Even if they're able to hold down the fort and hold off the likes of the Mavericks and Suns in the play-in chase, the Kings know their best chance of making any noise come mid-April comes with their hard-charging center upright and fully operational.
'Domas wants to be out there as much as anybody,' LaVine told reporters. 'We need to make sure he doesn't rush back and takes care of himself, because we're going to need him in the long run.'
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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Andy Audette was in pure disbelief. Earlier this summer, Audette could tell that his son Colton's Little League team was a pretty talented bunch. But even as the wins kept piling up, qualifying for the Little League World Series felt like a far-off fantasy. Fast forward to mid-August, and that fantasy has become reality. The Audettes are here in Williamsport, Pa., the epicenter of the youth baseball universe. It is the final stop on what has been a magical month-long journey for a tight-knit group of a dozen 12-year-olds from Bonney Lake, Washington. And the reward for being one of 20 lucky teams from around the globe to qualify for this renowned tournament was not just the opportunity to live out every young ballplayer's dream, but something more. 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For reference, the two minor-league parks currently housing major-league teams in Sacramento and Tampa hold about 10-12,000 fans, while the smallest capacity major-league stadium, Cleveland's Progressive Field, maxes out around 35,000. And with so few seats available for this unique event, MLB ensures the bulk of the crowd is made up of the Little League players, coaches, and families who get to take a break from their own high-stakes competition to enjoy an unrivaled up-close look at some of their favorite big leaguers. This year's contest featured the Mariners and Mets, a marquee matchup between two teams jockeying for playoff position in their respective leagues. The teams had split the first two games of the series at Citi Field before taking the quick flight west on Sunday morning for the finale in Williamsport. Entering the weekend, Seattle was one of baseball's hottest teams while New York had been scuffling hard, but this series brought a reversal of fortunes. After Seattle won an 11-9 slugfest on Friday night, the Mets bounced back with a 3-1 win on Saturday behind a strong start from top prospect Nolan McLean in his MLB debut. And on Sunday night at Bowman Field, the Mets cruised to a 7-3 victory to clinch their first series win of the month. Starter Clay Holmes pitched well for New York in what was, remarkably, his third appearance in a Little League Classic, following relief outings in the event with the Pirates in 2019 and the Yankees a year ago. Juan Soto drew three walks and delivered his signature shuffle to the delight of the crowd. Mark Vientos blasted a three-run homer to break the game open in the fifth inning. Raleigh's two-run blast was a memorable moment, but not enough to fuel a full-fledged Seattle comeback. But the truth is, the game that transpires on Sunday night is merely an epilogue to everything that unfolds over the course of the day leading up to first pitch. From the arrivals at Williamsport Regional Airport in the morning featuring Little Leaguers greeting the major leaguers on the tarmac to several hours of beautiful chaos at the complex, it's a nonstop free-for-all of autograph signings, selfies, and frantic chants from young kids from all over the world trying to get their favorite players' attention. Big league stars roam the concourses, slide down the famous hill that looms over Howard J. Lamade Stadium, and talk shop with the kids who hope to be in their shoes some day while spectating the games in progress. For the most part, it's a mess, in the best way possible, with a constant flow of players moving around the complex, attracting varying degrees of magnetic pull of a larger crowd, depending on their star power. 'I heard this rustling behind me,' said Mariners general manager Justin Hollander. 'I saw like, 70 people in a circle, and I thought, 'oh, Cal must be here.'" Multi-time All-Stars get mobbed, middle relievers wander unbothered. Amidst all the madness, some interactions carry more weight than others. Bonney Lake linking up with the nearby Mariners is surely special, but the most powerful connections are those made between the major-leaguers with international roots connecting with their native country's teams in Williamsport. Ontario's Matt Brash and Josh Naylor hanging out with Team Canada. Francisco Lindor and Edwin Diaz sitting in the stands with Team Puerto Rico. Andres Munoz and Randy Arozarena giving a pep talk to Team Mexico. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spending time with the team that made it to Williamsport from his hometown of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, with his fellow Venezuelan players Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens close by to share their own words of wisdom. "Watching the kids staring at Francisco Alvarez or Francisco Lindor, and you just see that smile on their face, like, 'oh my god, this is Francisco Alvarez,' or 'this is Francisco Lindor!'' said Mendoza. 'And it just kind of takes you back to when I was that age and being around professional players, even from a distance ... and just the fact that they were able to be that close, it was a pretty cool experience.' For tens of thousands of young ballplayers around the world, reaching the Little League World Series is the ultimate dream, with just a couple hundred lucky enough to earn a berth in the renowned summer tournament. For a few dozen major-leaguers, this brief trip to Williamsport represents something different amidst the unrelenting grind of a 162-game season, a welcome detour from the dog days of summer. It's undeniably a long day at the office for the big leaguers — virtually never do teams fly in and out of cities on game days like they do for the Little League Classic, let alone all the unusual and exhausting activity at the complex that takes place before preparing for their own game — but it serves a greater purpose that is not lost on the players, win or lose on Sunday night. 'It's worth it,' said Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez. 'If we don't impact the youth and the people around us in a positive way, we're doing this for nothing. And that's how I see it.' 'Even though it's more work, I think it's worth it.'
