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Many teams will be kicking off their NBA Cup group stage games on Friday night, one of which is the Sacramento Kings. With De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, the Kings were already one of the better offensive teams in the league. Now that they have added DeMar DeRozan, Mike Brown's team is even tougher to stop, especially late in games. Unfortunately, Sacramento took a hit when Malik Monk suffered a sprained ankle, and now DeRozan finds himself on the injury report.
DeRozan, who has been the team's second-leading scorer behind Fox, is vital to this organization's success. Against the Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards, it is vital that the Kings have enough offensive firepower in order to get off to a 1-0 start in the NBA Cup. After suffering a back injury in the team's previous game against the Phoenix Suns, it is unclear if the veteran wing is going to be available. This injury concern has sparked the question: Is DeMar DeRozan playing against the Timberwolves?
DeMar DeRozan's injury status vs. Timberwolves
On Friday morning, the Kings listed DeRozan as doubtful to play on the injury report with what was being called lower back tightness. Prior to pregame warmups, the team has ruled DeRozan out, according to Alan Horton of the Timberwolves Radio Network.
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In their previous game against the Suns, DeRozan played 17 minutes in the first half, scoring just two points on 1-of-2 shooting from the floor. Although he did find other ways to get involved with five rebounds and three assists, DeRozan looked stiff and just off his game throughout the first and second quarters.
Once the halftime whistle blew and the teams went to their locker rooms, the Kings announced that DeRozan was dealing with back tightness and that he would not be returning to this contest. Luckily for the Kings, Fox led the way with 29 points to give the team a 127-104 victory, their second win over the Suns in the last three games.
While there is not a whole lot of concern in Sacramento regarding DeRozan's injury, he will miss his first game since joining the Kings when they take on the Timberwolves. He did receive treatment for his back tightness on Thursday, and the team is optimistic that this will not be a prolonged injury.
With DeRozan set to miss Friday's game, Keegan Murray will once again assume the duties of being a go-to scoring option next to Fox and Sabonis. Murray has been up and down as of late, averaging just 13.0 points per game while shooting 30.0 percent from three-point range. At the same time, he has been a more aggressive rebounder, as the young forward has recorded double-digit rebounds in three of his last five games.
Alongside Murray, Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles, and Doug McDermott could all see their respective roles increase with DeRozan being ruled out against the Timberwolves.
So, when it comes to the question of if DeRozan is going to be playing in Friday night's game, the Kings' star will have to watch his team fight for their first NBA Cup win of the season from the sidelines.
