Malone is optimistic Rudy Gay and Darren Collison will play tonight, will know for sure after they go through pregame warmups. Ryan Hollins will start for DeMarcus Cousins.
![rudy gay status tonight rudy gay status tonight](https://www.nba.com/kings/sites/kings/files/cousins_11.jpg)
Rudy Gay and Darren Collison are still questionable. Its like we never missed a beat here tonight. Assistant Coach Ettore Messina coached in his place and made history as the first European to coach an NBA game.ĭeMarcus Cousins has been officially declared inactive for tonight. With the tip-off minutes away, Rudy Gay made his entrance quietly, sauntering into the gym ready to play. They also could be without head coach Gregg Popovich, who missed Wednesday's game with a minor medical procedure. San Antonio is relatively healthy aside from the continued absences of Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills. Ramon Sessions and Omri Casspi have been getting the start in Collison and Gay's absence, and Carl Landry will likely shift to the starting lineup if Cousins is gone, with Jason Thompson sliding over to center.
![rudy gay status tonight rudy gay status tonight](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2022/02/150e5-16445966730246-1920.jpg)
Still, the Kings will be extremely hard pressed to win this game without their three best players. On one good note, Cousins did sustain a minor knee injury in Wednesday's loss to the Houston Rockets, but that's not what will keep him out of tonight's game. Before that Kidd-Gilchrist was pretty successful on the offensive end with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting. Sacramento has been without Gay and Collison in both of the prior two games, but Cousins has yet to miss a game this season. Kidd-Gilchrist struggled to get going most of this game due to foul trouble, until he buckled-down and forced a jump-ball on Rudy Gay late in the fourth quarter, a risky move with him already having five fouls. The Kings today sent out an injury report listing Cousins as doubtful to play due to a virus of some sort, while both Rudy Gay (right achilles tendinitis) and Darren Collison (left quadriceps contusion) remained questionable.
![rudy gay status tonight rudy gay status tonight](https://cdn.hoopsrumors.com/files/2021/10/Rudy-Gay-900x600.jpg)
Kings fans were already anticipating possibly being without Rudy Gay and Darren Collison against the Spurs, but now you can add star center DeMarcus Cousins to that list.