SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown will miss Tuesday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets after entering the league’s health and safety protocols.
The team announced Tuesday afternoon that Brown will be out and associate coach Jordi Fernandez will run the team in his absence.
Brown will be out until he gets clearance to return from the COVID protocols. A source told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears that Brown has mild symptoms and hopes to be cleared to coach soon.
Fernandez will be coaching against his former team Tuesday night, as he was previously an assistant coach on Michael Malone’s staff from 2016 to 2022.
The Kings will also be without star center Domantas Sabonis, who has an avulsion fracture of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. Sabonis is day to day after getting hurt last Friday.
The resurgent Kings currently occupy the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference entering play Tuesday. At 17-14, they are 3½ games behind first-place Denver and only a half-game behind fifth-place Phoenix.
Sacramento hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2005-06 season, the NBA’s longest postseason drought.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.