Injury Update: Worrying signs for star King

Brian Goorjian admits his players are feeling the fatigue of a heavy travel schedule, and it doesn’t get any easier with Jaylen Adams seemingly ruled out longer term.

The star import and NBL22 MVP has been sidelined for the last two games due to a back injury, having struggled in recent weeks, averaging just six points a game across his last four appearances. 

“I think there’s a heavy process, no matter what,” Goorjian said of Adams’ road to recovery. 

“He didn’t have the pre-season on the Gold Coast (the Blitz), so he’s kind of underdone there, and then spent a lot of time getting him ready for the first game.

“When we played Perth in Perth, he had 27, and then had the teeth deal and then the back.”

Adams’ minutes dropped from 32 and 30 in the opening two games, to 22, 13 and 26 in the next three, before he was ultimately sidelined. 

“Now it’s lingering into a very long period of time and this thing’s very physical,” Goorjian added.

“I don’t think he’s going to have an impact on our group for a while.”

Goorjian said the Kings would wait to make a decision on whether to bring in an injury replacement for their star guard.

“We’ve just got to give it a little bit more time and make a decision there, I’m hoping that we’re still in this thing when it matters and that Jaylen’s a part of it,” he said.

Sydney lost both of its games across the weekend and has now fallen to fifth on the NBL standings, with a 5-4 record.

The Kings were highly fancied as championship favourites going into the season, but have found the going tougher than expected in the first month of NBL25.

On Sunday, all five of their starters failed to hit double-figure scoring and Izayah Le’Afa was the only one of 10 players to hit the court who reached that mark, hitting 23 himself.  

“Twice now we’ve gone to Perth and played in the afternoon the next day. At the fourth minute of the first quarter, I’m looking at (Alex) Toohey and X (Xavier Cooks) and they’re on their blades,” Goorjian said of the team’s fatigue against the Breakers.

“Our group’s really hurting. I know they wanted this one bad and we built that 12-point lead and gave it away in about a minute, then it was really, really difficult from that point on.”

The Kings travel to Melbourne on Thursday night to take on United at John Cain Arena.