Star hurt as Kings clobber Illawarra

THE Sydney Kings will be without two-time NBL MVP Kevin Lisch for at least a month after he injured his calf in yesterday’s 103-87 thrashing of NSW rivals Illawarra.

Lisch went down in the third quarter directly in front of the Sydney bench and played no further part in his team’s first win of the 2017-18 season.

Sydney coach Andrew Gaze fears Lisch could be sidelined for several weeks. “The physio is saying the best-case scenario is probably three to four weeks and the worst-case scenario is one we don’t even want to contemplate,” Gaze said.

“It’s just one of those things where he pushed off and unfortunately it sounds like a nasty one — and by sounds, I mean literally, because I was a metre away. The initial diagnosis is a grade 2 tear, but until we know, we hope he’s OK.

“Clearly it dampens our celebrations when our leader and a legend of the competition is going to be out.”

Gaze said Sydney had room to sign a third import to cover Lisch’s absence.

“We have an import spot, so a judgment will be made once we get the medical diagnosis,” he said. “That’s not the only reason why we have two imports, but in our rationale if something does happen we’ve got something up our sleeve.

“That was a huge win for us. It could’ve gone two ways when we lost Kevin.”

Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge wasn’t panicking despite his team’s 0-3 start to the season. “We’re not going to implode,” Beveridge said.