Kings hit "difficult situation"

The last six quarters have shown Brian Goorjian how important Bul Kuol is to the Sydney Kings, and he's now preparing for the worst with his knee injury.

Kuol was stringing together the best and most consistent performances of his 132-game NBL career up until injuring a knee in the second quarter on Friday night in Adelaide.

His absence was significant given his role trying to nullify Bryce Cotton, with the 36ers ultimately prevailing 85 79.

The South Sudanese international was again sidelined for Monday's top two clash with the South East Melbourne Phoenix, where he would have been matched up with star guard Nathan Sobey.

Instead, the Australian Boomer scored 26 points and guided the Phoenix to their highest scoring game of the season, during a 124 117 win.

Not only were the Kings without Kuol, but they also lost Xavier Cooks in the first quarter with an ankle injury; it's the former that Goorjian is concerned about.

"It looks like a difficult situation, and we're not sure, but it's going to be a bit," Goorjian said during Monday's post-game press conference.

"Right now these games are coming fast and furious, and it's like you land, and here's the situation, and I can't worry about that right now or discuss that right now because tomorrow we're playing for second place and he's out.

"So we had to deal with this game right now, and we had to come up with some solutions knowing we don't have Bul in the full court, and what are we going to do.

"I thought the game plan in certain areas got smashed and we had to make adjustments on the hop, but now we've got a couple of days before we head to New Zealand and it's something we'll sit down and discuss."

During the press conference, Goorjian also mentioned the club had a lot going on right now with Bul, who saw ESPN's Olgun Uluc report the defensive dynamo could be dealing with a serious ACL injury.

If that is the case, Uluc went on to say the Harbour City side had some lineup flexibility up their sleeve.

"The Kings have some roster flexibility, with a third import spot that’s currently unused," Uluc said via X.

"There have yet to be discussions on whether they’ll pursue an injury replacement for Kuol but, if they do, that player would have to be suited up for the January 25 game vs Adelaide in order to meet the seven-game criteria to be eligible for the postseason."

Thankfully, the ankle injury to NBL23 MVP Cooks doesn't appear to be long-term.

"I'll know more about Xavier tomorrow, but I'm certainly not planning on something long term," Goorjian said.

"It was different lineups tonight with Cooks and Kuol, so now we've got an opportunity over a couple of days to prepare for New Zealand.

"I'm confident we will come up with some solutions to some issues out there that were hard to deal with on the hop."

The Kings travel to Spark Arena on Friday to face the Breakers from 5.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.