The Sacramento Kings lost another key player to an injury for the rest of the regular season with star sixth man Malik Monk out at least four weeks with a knee injury.
The Kings said Saturday that Monk has a sprained MCL in his right knee and will be re-evaluated in four weeks. Monk got hurt early in a 107-103 loss to Dallas on Friday.
Sacramento entered the day in eighth place in the Western Conference and is trying to make it to the top six and avoid the play-in tournament. The play-in tournament starts on April 16 and the first round on April 20.
The Kings are already without guard Kevin Huerter, who will likely miss the rest of the season with a left shoulder injury.
Monk is the favorite to win the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award, averaging 15.4 points and 5.1 assists while coming off the bench every game. Monk leads all players in the NBA in points (1,110) and assists (370) off the bench.
Huerter will undergo left shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum that he sustained on March 18 after taking contact from Memphis’ Desmond Bane on a drive to the basket. He dislocated his left shoulder on the play and had missed the last five games.
The 25-year-old has been averaging 10.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists this season, and has started 59 games.
Coach Mike Brown left open the possibility that Huerter might return in time if the Kings make a deep playoff run, and said Huerter will remain around the team and stay engaged.
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Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) lands on Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk (0), injuring Monk's right knee during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas)
ATLANTA (AP) — A dynamic storm system threatening to spawn powerful tornadoes and hail as big as baseballs has earned a relatively rare designation from forecasters: A “high risk” day of severe weather.
Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois saw some of the most extreme weather on Friday, with the system forecast to take aim Saturday at southern states including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
“Numerous significant tornadoes, some of which should be long-track and potentially violent, are expected on Saturday afternoon and evening,” the federal Storm Prediction Center said in its latest forecast.
The Storm Prediction Center uses five categories to warn of expected severe weather, ranging from marginal to high. Its forecast maps are color-coded, with the lowest risk areas in green and the highest shown in magenta.
On Saturday, that area of highest risk includes parts of Mississippi and Alabama.
The “high risk” designation is used when severe weather is expected to include “numerous intense and long-tracked tornadoes" or thunderstorms producing hurricane-force wind gusts and inflicting widespread damage, according to the agency's product descriptions.
On many days when the “high risk” designation was used in recent years, the forecasts became reality.
On May, 6, 2024, the Storm Prediction Center assigned the high-risk category to parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, warning of “multiple significant tornadoes along potentially long paths.”
The forecast was prescient, as dozens of tornadoes gouged the landscape. One of the strongest twisters tore through the small town of Barnsdall, Oklahoma.
Aerial video showed many homes reduced to piles of rubble. About 25 people were rescued from homes where buildings had collapsed on or around them, the town's mayor said at the time.
On March 31, 2023, the Storm Prediction Center outlined two areas along the Mississippi River Valley at high risk for tornadoes.
Hours after that forecast was issued, multiple twisters collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois and shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas.
A roof collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, killed one person and injured more than two dozen others. About 260 people were in the venue at the time, the local fire chief said.
Mark Nelson, of Wis., waits with his tractor-trailer after it overturned during high winds and a possible tornado on Interstate 44 westbound at Villa Ridge, Mo., Friday, March 14, 2025. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Students arriving for classes walk past damage from the roof that was sheered off by high by winds at Plano West High School Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Plano, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Homes that were under construction sit destroyed after recent severe weather that passed through the area in Haslet, Texas, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
