Kings’ Willie Cauley-Stein out 4-6 weeks after dislocating right index finger
The Sacramento Kings got injury added to insult on Thursday night. In the final minute of their 114-97 loss to the Boston Celtics in Mexico City on Thursday night, rookie big man Willie Cauley-Stein hustled his way into an injury that could keep him out for more than a month.
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With just under 60 seconds remaining, a missed jumper by Kings guard James Anderson wound up in the hands of Celtics rookie R.J. Hunter, who flicked a hit-ahead pass up-court to teammate James Young. Boston already held a 15-point lead, but Brad Stevens’ young end-of-the-rotation charges kept the hammer down, with Young lofting a lob pass aimed at an alley-oop finish by big man Kelly Olynyk. To his credit, even down 15, Cauley-Stein never stopped hauling, beating the ball back down the floor and getting up to block the alley-oop feed.
Unfortunately, he cracked his right hand into the backboard in the process:
Cauley-Stein almost instantly realized something was very wrong with his right hand, coming straight off the court for treatment by the Kings training staff and looking to be in quite a bit of pain:
There’s a reason for that: Shortly after the game, the Kings announced that Cauley-Stein had suffered an “open dislocation of his right index finger” that will cost him “approximately 4-6 weeks of action.”
That’s a real bummer for Cauley-Stein, who finished Thursday’s loss with eight points, five rebounds, one assist and one block in just under 18 minutes of floor time, and for a Kings club that really seems to need the specific skills that the former All-American and college Defensive Player of the Year brings to the table.
Kings brass selected the 7-foot Kentucky product with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft to provide a jolt of defensive intensity, athleticism and rim protection for a Sacramento club that had finished 20th or worse in points allowed per possession for nine straight seasons. Cauley-Stein’s overall production hasn’t been eye-popping — he’s averaging 4.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 18.9 minutes per game — but his ability to finish when he does get the ball (shooting 60.9 percent from the field) and his defensive activity have led Kings coach George Karl to slot him into the starting lineup in 14 of his 20 appearances, and Sacramento has generally performed better with him in the mix.
In Cauley-Stein’s 378 minutes of floor time, the Kings have outscored opponents by 3.6 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com’s stat tool. In 587 minutes with him on the bench, they’ve been outscored by a whopping 9.6 points-per-100. That’s the difference between performing like a top-10 team and a bottom-three outfit. Interestingly, while Sacramento has been stouter defensively with Cauley-Stein, the bulk of that difference has come on the offensive end; they’re scoring an average 107.3 points-per-100 when he plays, and just 98.2 points-per-100 when he sits.
Moreover, the twin-towers frontcourt look Cauley-Stein alongside fellow massive ex-Wildcat DeMarcus Cousins has been awfully impressive in the early going, with Sacramento clamping down at an elite level (94.6 points allowed per 100 possessions, which would be the league’s second-best defense over the course of the full season, behind only the brutalizing San Antonio Spurs) and outscoring opponents by 10 points-per-100 in 115 minutes with that pair on the floor. With Cauley-Stein expected to miss four to six weeks, Karl will have to shuffle up his rotation yet again to find Cousins a productive partner.
Free-agent signing Kosta Koufos could return to the starting mix, but he’s been an awkward fit next to Cousins in the early going; Sacramento’s offense has short-circuited, and its defense has hemorrhaged points, with the Cousins-Koufos tandem on the court thus far, getting outscored by a giant 14 points per 100 possessions in 100 shared minutes. If Omri Casspi’s available to return after missing Thursday’s contest with the dreaded diagnosis of gastroenteritis, Karl could elect to downshift a bit and go smaller with an increase in minutes for Boogie’s headband buddy:
As heartwarming as that’d be, though, we’re betting Kings fans would prefer their enticing and integral rookie not spend the next month or more in street clothes (no matter how interesting said strips might look). Here’s hoping Cauley-Stein manages to stay sharp while sidelined, and that he’ll be back to using that injured right paw to swat fools’ shots before too long.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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