Kings Malik Monk leaves game in first quarter with knee injury, reportedly has MCL sprain

This is rough news for a Kings team that recently lost starting two guard Kevin Huerter for the season.

Malik Monk, the clear frontrunner for Sixth Man of the Year, had to leave the game just over a minute after he entered it following this collision with a driving Luka Doncic — they collide in the air and then Doncic falls on top of Monk.

Monk was ruled out for the rest of the game, but the scarier news came after the contest from Shams Charania of The Athletic.

If it is an MCL sprain, how long Monk is out depends upon the severity of it. For a more mild sprain it could be just a couple of weeks, roughly through the remainder of the regular season. If it is a higher grade of sprain, Monk could be out through the playoffs.

Monk has been a key part of the Kings' attack this season, averaging 15.4 points and 5.1 assists a game off the bench, shooting 35% from 3 and often closing games for the team. He is considered the clear frontrunner to win Sixth Man of the Year (and this injury does not impact that, Sixth Man is not an award impacted by the 65-game rule, plus Monk has played in 72 games already anyway).

The Kings went on to lose that game to Dallas 107-103, and now sit eighth in the West, a full two games back of the Mavericks for the No. 6 seed and avoiding the play-in. Sacramento has to rack up some wins because the Lakers are just 1.5 games back of them (two in the loss column) for the No. 9 seed, and the Kings don't want to drop into that spot and have to win two games to get into the playoffs proper. The good news there is the Kings have the tiebreaker over the Lakers (Sacramento swept the season series 4-0). Sacramento now appears destined for the play-in, but finish 7/8 and they only need to win one of two games to advance to the playoffs, a much easier path than coming out of 9/10.