Malik Monk may have just played his final game of the 2023-24 season.
The Sacramento Kings guard Monk injured his knee during Friday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks. While he was trying to defend a Luka Doncic drive in transition, Monk collided hard with Doncic. A combination of an awkward landing and then Doncic falling into him seemed to cause Monk’s knee to bend inward. Monk left the game and didn’t return as the Kings lost to the Mavs 107-103.
Here is the video of the play.
Malik Monk went to the Kings' locker room after this collision with Luka Dončić pic.twitter.com/24JzYM4bk5
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) March 30, 2024
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Saturday that Monk suffered a sprained right MCL on the play. He is now expected to miss four-to-six weeks with the injury.
The former lottery pick Monk has been one of the most important Kings players this season and is seen as the frontrunner for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. He had been averaging 15.4 points and 5.1 assists over a modest 26 minutes per game off the bench, serving as one of Sacramento’s best pure offensive creators.
The Kings end the regular season in just over two weeks on Apr. 14 and are currently No. 8 in the West at 42-31. That means they would likely have to survive the play-in tournament and pull off a playoff upset or two against a much higher seed before Monk would even have a chance to return.
It is always possible for Sacramento, a team that still has one of the most potent offenses in the league led by star duo De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. But given that the Kings just lost another big puzzle piece for the year earlier this week, it will definitely be a tough task for them to pull off.
