The Sacramento Kings, apparently snake-bitten since the NBA reboot started last month, have seen the clouds start to separate a little on Friday.
Striker Harrison Barnes canceled the league’s COVID-19 protocol and boarded a flight to Orlando on Friday morning, said coach Luke Walton. And young star De’Aaron Fox told reporters that he had recovered from a sprained left ankle.
“I was able to go up and down with the boys today, and I felt great,” said Fox, who suffered the injury on July 15th and may be available for the fight of the Kings against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday if does not experience any discomfort after Friday’s rehearsals.
Barnes tested positive for the coronavirus in early July, just before the kings flew to Orlando as a team. His recovery lasted nearly three weeks before he was able to record two consecutive negative tests.
“We are happy to have brought him here, and then he will have to begin his two-day quarantine once he arrives and pass that protocol before he can join us on the pitch,” Walton said in a video conference Friday. “But a big step for us until we get it out here.”
Sacramento also brought together Buddy Hield, Jabari Parker and Alex Len on the Orlando team after recovering from COVID-19.
Hield led the Kings with 19 points in their first scrimmage against Wednesday’s Miami Heat. Parker had nine points and three rebounds. Len, who came to the bubble after Hield and Parker, did not play while the team is managing its workload as it takes shape.
Earlier this week, the Kings had determined that Marvin Bagley III would lose the rest of the season due to a lateral sprain in his right foot that he suffered during rehearsals in Orlando.
The Richaun Holmes departure center also completed a 10-day mandatory quarantine for inadvertently violating the perimeter of the NBA campus at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex last week.
The Kings (28-36) follows the 3 and a half games of the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth and final playoff point in the Western Conference with eight seeding games remaining. If they are in ninth place when the seeding matches end, and within four games in any team’s ranking it is number 8 at that point, they would force a game scenario in which the eighth place team should beat two games in a row to earn a seat after the season.
Barnes, who is growing a sloppy beard, has promised not to shave until one of three things happens: Sacramento reaches 500 or makes the playoffs, or the season ends.
Walton had grown a beard to show solidarity with Barnes while he was recovering from COVID-19, but the coach was well shaved after Friday’s practice.
“I got news that Harrison was coming,” said Walton. “I told Harrison last night when we talked that now that he’s running away, his beard is coming off. He tried to convince me that now means it’s good luck. But, no, the beard is over.”
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