For just the third time this season, the Sacramento Kings played without Tyreke Evans in their lineup. Soreness in his left knee forced him to sit out the Kings’ 91-82 victory over the Orlando Magic yesterday evening.
Doc Evans, Tyreke’s older brother, told Cowbell Kingdom that the Kings starting shooting guard underwent an MRI on his left knee yesterday morning. The results came back negative for any damage.
“The MRI was good,” Evans said following Friday night’s game of the medical testing he experienced earlier in the day. “Nothing was torn. It’s just swelling and it’s pretty sore, but that’s pretty much it.”
Evans described soreness and weakness in his left knee when trying to push off. The Kings hope to have him ready to go tonight in Portland. But like any injury, they’ll wait and see how his body reacts to the plane ride north before determining if he can make a go of it.
“He had some soreness and some stiffness there after the game the other night,” Kings head coach Keith Smart said after yesterday’s win. “He had a lot of work with the last couple of days of practicing.”
Evans suffered the injury a week and a half ago in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, bumping knees with forward Andrei Kirilenko. He missed the Kings’ following two games then returned to the lineup Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors. He scored 23 points, including back-to-back, game-clinching threes in the waning minutes of the 107-100 victory.
Jonathan Santiago also contributed to this report.
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