Kings star Domantas Sabonis will make his season debut in Friday’s home opener against Utah, as James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com relays (via Twitter).
Sabonis sustained a right hamstring injury during a preseason contest on October 15. Sacramento subsequently referred to the ailment as a Grade 1 strain and said he’d be reevaluated in a week, with an expectation that he’d be out for the first two games of the season — instead he’ll only miss one.
The 29-year-old center was spotted shooting at Thursday’s practice and was initially listed as questionable for Friday’s matchup with the Jazz before being upgraded to available.
Here are a few more injury-related notes from around the NBA:
- Veteran big man Kristaps Porzingis will miss his first regular season game with the Hawks on Friday due to flu-like symptoms, tweets Brad Rowland of Locked On Hawks. A league source tells Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Porzingis participated in the Hawks’ shootaround on Friday morning but started feeling ill in the afternoon (Twitter link). Atlanta plays at Orlando. Porzingis, who was acquired from Boston in an offseason trade, recorded 20 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in Wednesday’s disappointing blowout loss to Toronto.
- After exiting Thursday’s opener against Oklahoma City with left shoulder soreness, Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard will undergo additional testing to determine the severity of the injury, head coach Rick Carlisle said after the thrilling double-overtime loss (Twitter link via Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files). “We’ll find out more (Friday). He’s going to get some tests done. But this is going to potentially present some big challenges.” As we noted last night, Indiana’s point guard depth is very shaky at the moment due to several injuries.
- Warriors wing Moses Moody suffered a left calf injury during a practice a couple weeks ago, causing him to miss Golden State’s final three preseason games as well as Thursday’s win against Denver. But he’ll be back for Friday’s matchup in Portland, which is the second of a back-to-back, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link). Al Horford will be out with left toe injury management, Slater adds, which was expected.
- Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley provided a minor injury update on forward/center Moritz Wagner on Friday, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. Wagner is recovering from a torn ACL he sustained last December. “Moe right now is just still doing the non-contact work, continuing to strengthen his body,” Mosley said. “But his spirits are still great. You can see him on the bench throughout our games continuing to coach, using his voice, using his encouragement. But body-wise, it’s just still continuing with the non-contact work.”
Was at that Pacer/Thunder game last night and they have no one that can direct the offense without Nembhard (and he was a massive drop from Hali obviously). When your late second rounder is in 5 minutes in to the opener as your backup PG (every stoppage in play you could literally see the coaching staff trying to teach him on the fly) it’s not a good deal. Shep was better option but not natural. Siakam gets out of control too much Mathrin is a scorer not facilitator. They need TJ healthy – but he’s gonna give you limited minutes as well.
Porzingis is a walking infirmary by himself. Hope he gets over whatever’s been going on
so now who loses minutes with Moody back? Richards been playing well. GP2 could see his minutes go down. Kerr will most like play Green and Curry less tonight to give them some rest.
He’s been out so it may take a little bit to get ramped up. Maybe he gets 12 minutes tonight and hopefully as you say, those come from curry and Greymond rather than Richard and Kuminga.
KP out again ….. sign of things to come.
Pacers played well. I’m impressed.
Magic and Pistons both should be in the East race this year. Magic are deep.