SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Kings guard DeMar DeRozan was ruled out of Wednesday night’s 127-104 win over the Phoenix Suns because of lower back tightness, the team said.
There’s hope that with treatment over the next two days, DeRozan will be available for Friday’s NBA Cup game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a source told ESPN.
After the game, Kings coach Mike Brown said he hadn’t spoken to DeRozan. DeRozan left the arena immediately after the game finished.
DeRozan did not emerge from the locker room after halftime and was ruled out shortly afterward. He scored two points on 1-of-2 shooting in 17 minutes in the first half.
So far this year, DeRozan has been Mr. Clutch for Sacramento; he’s scored 36 points in the clutch this season — the second-best mark in the league. Overall, he’s averaging 24.8 points on 52.6% shooting in 38 minutes.
DeRozan has only missed 44 games since being drafted in 2009. Losing DeRozan for any period of time would be a major hit to the Kings’ depth, with them already having to play without sixth man Malik Monk for at least two weeks (ankle).
“When you miss a guy like Malik, you miss a guy like DeMar, it’s going to be by committee,” Brown said. “And tonight, it was by committee.”
Trey Lyles started the second half for DeRozan, and finished with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. As a team, the Kings had their best 3-point shooting performance of the season, knocking down 15 shots on a 53.6% clip.
De’Aaron Fox led the Kings with 29 points, and Kevin Huerter had a breakout game with 22.
