The Sacramento Kings announced that forward-center Domantas Sabonis suffered a grade 1 left hamstring strain in the opening minutes of the Kings victory against the Rockets on Saturday night and that Sabonis will be listed as out, providing an update in a week.
From the Kings:
Sacramento Kings forward-center Domantas Sabonis underwent an MRI today. The MRI confirmed that Sabonis suffered a grade 1 left hamstring strain after exiting the game during the first quarter against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, March 1. Sabonis will be listed as out and an update will be provided in (1) week.
This might be the best possible realistic outcome for a non-contact injury to Sabonis, but still it comes at a time where the Kings have won three in a row, are in eighth place in the Western Conference and sit just a half game back of the sixth seed.
As for the schedule in his time away: The Kings are in a virtual tie with 10th seed Dallas Mavericks, their opponent on Monday night, and will also see the 3rd seed Denver Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs (in De’Aaron Fox’s return to Sacramento) and the 6th seed Los Angeles Clippers before Sabonis’s status is updated.
[In the meantime, Shams Charania is reporting that “the Kings are signing center Skal Labissiere to a 10-day contract out of Stockton NBA G League affiliate, agent Daniel Hazan of Hazan Sports told ESPN. Third Kings stint for Sacramento’s 2016 first-round pick. Labissiere has averaged 15.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in G League.” So, hey, help is on the way?]
Rough stretch for the Kings to not have their All-Star center, but as mama always says “Grade 1 ain’t dead, son”.
She never said that, I’ve just never had to break news in an article like this and I’m struggling to end it.
Tough stretch coming up. Will definitely be a huge test but I think JV should actually offer a really solid option at the 5 while Domas is out.
On the other hand, if there were ever a time to tank spurs style, this would be the time. Let the Ox take a well deserved hibernation and keep our pick.
Let’s start with beating the Mavs
Yes, this would certainly be the worst possible time to tank, especially since they need to convey the pick this season. It’s all but impossible to replace what Domas does, and it’s gonna hurt, but I am excited to see Skal get another chance. I feel like he’s earned another look and I’m happy for him.
Funny thing is, I feel even if the Kings tried to tank, Phoenix is just such a dumpster fire right now that the Kings would probably end at 10th at worst.
Agreed. It seems the Suns would have to get red hot and the Kings would have to go ice cold to flip things around at this point. A 4 game separation with just 23 games to go is not insignificant when both teams are not far from .500 basketball on the season.
I think with JV we’ll be fine and probably win some games. If we still only had Len we’d be riding the tank heavily.
Suns are imploding. KD must truly hate draymond to nix a trade back to the bay in order to keep doing whatever they’re doing in the desert
19-31 since their 9-2 start.
Hope this injury doesn’t hamstring our chances for the playoffs.
Are you pulling my leg?
And yet Hollinger and others wondered why we needed to trade for JV. Idiots.
That’s about the best they could hope for. I’d guess he’s out a couple weeks.
kings go in a run without Sabs? Is the team better w JV?
Kidding. But will be interesting to see what kind of impact /diff JV makes on D.
Skal?!
&ct=g
My dad used to say, “Strive to be the best you can be, or hang around a group that makes you look better by comparison.” Then he’d look us all up and down and add, “I’ve made my decision and I’m pretty damned happy with it!”
Would have been 104 today. Happy Birthday, Pops! Love you and miss you.
Happy birthday to your dad, Rob!
Wear some pants in his honor!
Get well soon, Domas.
One game at a time. I’m so damn happy we beat the Rockets. A Luka-less Mavericks definitely feels nicer to face but I don’t want to talk about the Lakers and Warriors right now. The West is nuts.
The 6th-10th spot is gonna be a dogfight coming down this final stretch.
100%
Sounds like an episode of:
Woof.
Kenny Thomas?
Anyone on these threads ever have a grade 1 hamstring strain that can enlighten us on the recovery? From my understanding hammy’s are a tough one to recover from and can re-injure quite easily.
We didn’t have the money to go get an MRI when I was younger, but I definitely had a hamstring injury from baseball that made me sit out for weeks. Basically just rested and iced for a bit until the inflammation went down, then slowly started stretching and strengthening.
Medical treatment is far more advanced now, and the Kings likely have top of the line equipment and tech. That should make the recovery a bit faster.
‘Grade 1’ means microscopic tearing. In a well-conditioned athlete who stretches regularly, the recovery should be relatively brief. The big concern is returning too early and re-injuring it more severely. Really good athletic training will help ensure he’s ready to return and not re-injure.
Yea I’ve had several in my 25 years as an endurance athlete, specifically in marathon training.
Grade one means they might not even be able to see torn fibers, if they’re torn at all.
When I see mild hammy strain the word NAG comes to mind. Hamstrings fuck with your head because you don’t feel a thing shortly after, but you’re still scared to start and stop.
It’s the slow-pitch softball injury when you take off after hitting the ball. I think a return in two weeks would be amazing.
Marathon training? Respect!
Also a runner and have had many of these as well. Generally it takes me a couple weeks to recover from them but it is weird because you feel fine and then all of a sudden you can just feel a little tug and you’re out for a week again. Hamstring and calf strains are the by far the most annoying injuries IMO.
I had several hamstring injuries (20-ish) over the years ranging from strains (probably grade 1) to one doctor telling me I had almost completely tore it and would have required reattachment surgery.
They suck, are very easy to reinjure and can mess with your head. The biggest mind-f is that you can rehab, heal up, test it out and do all the things but until you are going full speed in a game situation you don’t know if it will hold up.
The very difficult part is in a fast twitch sport you may be playing and feel fine and don’t feel it at all until it pops again and you are back to square one or it is even worse that when it started.
What ended up helping me was when I would think I was ready to play again, I would give it an extra week if it was a mild strain or an extra two weeks if it was more severe. This greatly reduced reinjuries for me.
Probably most of us have had a grade one hamstring strain. Yeah you don’t want to rush the return. Then after returning, it lingers. For professional athletes, it’s more difficult. I had one in September and it still sort of lingers but all I do now is cycle, eat mini-chocolate donuts and join the Kings victory dance threads.
Trying to take a glass half full approach here as this is a tough time to have him out. Perhaps the rest associated with healing with the hamstring will see him fresh once he gets his legs back under him? Also, given JV is new to the team perhaps this injury will give him and the other players around him a chance to really gel, which could come in handy in key moments if we make the playoffs and Domas is resting and/or in foul trouble?
Let’s win this one today!
If we hadn’t signed JV, this would have been massive, but having a starting caliber backup big helps a ton. And one that provides the same level of rebounding, but with a bit of an edge to his game means the Kings don’t have to change a whole lot. I think they have the tools to make up the offensive production too. They are obviously a much better team with Sabonis but having JV is a much needed luxury right now.
I mentioned yesterday that JV has never really been a minutes work horse like Sabonis has been. JV averaged 30 MPG just once in 12 seasons, while Domas has averaged 34 MPG for the past 7 years. JV, in my eyes, look pretty gassed after hitting 30 minutes on Saturday. Monte is going to need to find someone else to eat up minutes at center. It could be the reason the are kicking the tires on Skal with a 10 day. Tomorrow is the deadline to convert any 2-way players to a regular roster and the Kings really only have JV and Lyles to play the 5 beyond Skal’s 10-day.
I think we will see more of Lyles in the games that Domas is out. Maybe even a few minutes of Isaac Jones as well.
The Skal signing not leading the headline is a criminally egregious failure of cosmic proportions!
But, the dream is still alive! Let’s go Skal!
There is still a roster spot to sign Giles to a 10-day!
Makes me even more happy than I already was for the Jonas V trade
Saw this hammy injury was first reported by James, made sense.
Yeah, I had a first grade and it was tough. Had to go back and do it again, made me tear.
Oh, and
return of the Haitian Sensation!
Let’s see if he reskalibrated his game!
God damn that made me laugh.
The injury comes at the worst time since the Kings are in the thick of the fight for a playoff spot, but is also an opportunity for the other guys to step up. I hope the medical staff does not rush Domas back and he ends up with a worse injury. I remember Zion had a hammy and he was out for a couple of weeks, but the Ox vs Zion is a vast difference in conditioning. Still, i hope our training staff will put their foot down and tell Domas to RICE because if he can play on one leg, you bet Domas would under-report his symptoms.
Am i alone in thinking the wear and tear of Mike Brown’s extended minutes of playing time has led to this? Playing starters 40 mins a game in the 1st half of the season was odd.
He’s 17th in the league in minutes, so it has not been an unusually heavy load for him, career-wise. I’m surprised to see Fox 6th on that current list – that has to be rarer air for him. DeRozan has also been a minutes eater during his career, and he is 27th on the list. No surprise that three Knicks (Bridges, Brunson, Hart) are in the top five (along with Ant and Tatum).
I don’t get the minutes concerns. Why is 35 minutes okay, but 40 is OMG. That’s an extra minute and 15 per stint at 2 stints per half. Warm up a few minutes less if your body can only handle X minutes of exertion per day(LOL).
Wilt averaged 48.5 minutes a game over 80 games in 61-62. The year he averaged 50.4 pts and 25.7 rebs.
He’s in line with but slightly behind Jokic for total minutes and mpg. To your point, I can’t make the correlation between his minutes and the hammy injury.
A Grade 1 hamstring strain for a professional athlete seems like the most normal thing in the world.
Wilt was a freak of nature, it should be hard to compare anyone to him in most stats. Whenever I see the 48.5 minutes a game I always just kind of shake my head in disbelief
I don’t think 35 to 40 minutes is OMG levels but over the course of a season those minutes add up, and can take their toll on the body in different ways. Domas is 100% effort and seems to certainly be built different, so this could have been bothering him for who knows how long before it just wasn’t playable.
Hence the term “wear and tear.” Extended minutes mean less recovery time between games, especially with B2Bs. All these movements by elite athletes still cause micro tears in their muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Sports science has become better but these players still have the same anatomy as we do, but are leaps and bounds better conditioned. We all saw Domas grab his hammy in the CHA game and try to stretch it out during the FT attempt. Would taking him out at the next stoppage prevented the injury? Probably not.
The Kings, of course, come out looking rough.
Tre has arrived.
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