Two teams adjusting to life without a key player will meet in a rematch Wednesday night when the Phoenix Suns visit the Sacramento Kings on the second night of a back-to-back.
While the Kings enjoyed the night off, the Suns opened NBA Cup play with a 120-112 road win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, riding 31 points from Devin Booker and 24 from Bradley Beal.
Phoenix has a second NBA Cup road game slated for Friday at Oklahoma City, but also should be plenty inspired to see the Kings, who pulled out a 127-118 overtime triumph in Arizona on Sunday.
DeMar DeRozan dominated the five extra minutes for the Kings, single-handedly outscoring the Suns 8-7. De’Aaron Fox scored Sacramento’s other eight overtime points.
That was the Suns’ first game without Kevin Durant, who suffered a strained left calf Friday in a win over Dallas. He already has been ruled out of all games this week. On the season, he is averaging 27.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
It’s possible Beal also will miss the revenge game against the Kings after straining a calf late in the win at Utah.
Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer said afterward that a decision on Beal’s status for the Sacramento game will be made after a further examination Wednesday, but the standout guard had his own diagnosis shortly thereafter.
“It just got tight on me,” he said. “I think it was probably lingering from the knee injury (in Sunday’s game against the Kings). It should be all right.
Leaving the game against Utah was “just a little precautionary,” he said.
Beal had a team-high 28 points and Booker 23 in Sunday’s loss. Booker had a chance to prevent overtime, but misfired on a buzzer-beating 24-footer.
The Kings showed the wear and tear of their extra-time effort at Phoenix when they went to San Antonio and got crushed 116-96 on the second night of a back-to-back Monday. Sacramento had suffered their previous four losses by a total of 18 points.
Like the Suns, Sacramento is playing a man down this week after supersub Malik Monk sprained his right ankle in the win at Phoenix. He wasn’t among the reserves who got outscored 37-21 by their San Antonio counterparts.
The initial diagnosis indicated Monk could be back by the end of the month, which sugar-coated the bad news for teammate Fox.
“Malik is obviously big for us,” Fox said. “He’s a sixth starter. He can start for a lot of teams. Last year, it hurt us big-time (when he was out).”
Monk sprained the same ankle in the Kings’ 73rd game last March and sat out the rest of the regular season, during which Sacramento went 4-5 to slide into the 9-10 play-in game in the Western Conference.
He also missed both of the Kings’ play-in games — a win over Golden State and a season-ending loss to New Orleans.
This season, Monk is averaging 12.6 points and 25 minutes per game off the bench.
DeRozan totaled 34 points, Fox 21 and Domantas Sabonis 20 to complement 12 rebounds in the win over the Suns.
Keegan Murray tipped in a DeRozan miss with four seconds left to create the tie that led to overtime. He finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
-Field Level Media