When it happened midway through the third quarter, it looked like he was done for the night. The Kings’ De’Aaron Fox stepped on the foot of the Lakers Gabe Vincent during a drive and rolled his ankle, with his foot going parallel to the ground.
My look at De’Aaron Fox’s ankle injury tonight. No update from the team yet, Mike Brown didn’t provide an update yet because he said he hadn’t heard anything yet. pic.twitter.com/GIO8U80qPb
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) October 30, 2023
Fox found a way to return to the game and score 13 more points to help lift the Kings past the Lakers in overtime. However, once the game was over and his ankle started to swell up, it was likely he would miss time. While the Kings have yet to make it official, multiple reports say Fox will miss time with a “moderate” ankle sprain. Shams Charania of The Athletic was first.
Kings All-Star De’Aaron Fox has avoided significant injury, but has sustained a moderate sprain of his right ankle and he is likely to miss some time, sources tell me and @sam_amick. Fox played through the sprain down stretch of 37 points and victory over Lakers on Sunday.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 30, 2023
“Moderate” is not a medical term and leaves things open, although KTXL’s Sean Cunningham says there is hope Fox might only be out a week. Don’t be surprised if it’s a little longer than that.
Fox is an All-Star who has averaged 31.3 points and six assists a game through three games this season and is shooting a career best 37.5% from 3. He has helped the Kings get off to a fast 2-1 start.
More concerning, the Kings have been outscored by 11.9 points per 100 possessions when Fox is off the court this season. It’s early, that’s a small sample size and how backup Davion Mitchell plays with the starters remains to be seen, but the Kings become more vulnerable until Fox returns.