Malik Monk erupts for season-high 39 to help Kings take down Timberwolves in OT thriller

The Sacramento Kings needed a win Friday to avoid dropping their third straight and falling further down the Western Conference standings.

The challenge: Take on the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves, on the road without go-to scorer De’Aaron Fox.

The Kings, apparently fueled by Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets, put together one of their strongest efforts of the season to take down the Timberwolves 124-120 in an overtime thriller at Target Center in Minneapolis.

It turned out to be a great time for Malik Monk to put a stamp on his Sixth Man of the Year candidacy. The game went to overtime in large part due to Monk, who produced a career night with Fox out due to injury. Monk scored 29 points in the second half, the most in a single half of his career, en route to a season-high 39.

Monk made 12 of 19 shots in the third and fourth quarters after hitting halftime with just four points. He scored 18 in the fourth quarter. It was the eighth time in his career and the first time this season that he scored 20 points in a half.

In overtime, the Kings had to play one of the biggest front lines in the NBA featuring Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns without Domantas Sabonis, who fouled out with 3:58 left.

Monk hit a game-tying 3 with 2:37 left and then another with 2:05 to go. They were two of the biggest buckets in the game after he missed a potential game-winning stepback 3 as time expired at the end of regulation.

Minnesota had a chance to tie the game with a Naz Reid 3 with 10.0 seconds remaining. Trey Lyles grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He added to the drama by missing the first free throw, but he made the second to make it a two-possession game.

The Kings got another stop and came away with one of their biggest wins of the season.

The Kings were without Fox for the second straight game with a left knee contusion after he banged his knee during Monday’s loss to the Miami Heat. Coach Mike Brown went with Keon Ellis in the starting lineup after starting Davion Mitchell on Wednesday in Denver.

Monk led the way without Fox, but the Kings also got productive nights from their backup point guards, who have been quiet for most of the season. Ellis had a career-high four steals with seven assists and a block. Mitchell scored 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards left the game at halftime for personal reasons, the team said, after scoring 11 points on 2-of-11 shooting (he made six free throws) in 19 minutes. It meant both teams had to play without their leading scorers.

The start of the game was similar to Wednesday, when the Kings got going against the Nuggets early.

The Kings on Friday got out to 20-6 lead midway through the first quarter thanks to getting turnovers and starting hot from 3-point range. Ellis had two early steals while the team opened with four made 3s, including two from Kevin Huerter, who went 0 for 2 from distance in the blowout loss to Denver Wednesday.

Sabonis scored 12 points with eight rebounds and three assists in the opening frame. He extended his double-double streak to 42 games when he notched his 10th rebound in the second quarter. It gave him a league-high 55 on the year. He had 17 and 12 in the first half and finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.

But like Wednesday against the Nuggets, the momentum swung back towards the home team in the second quarter. Minnesota outscored Sacramento 37-30, with Sacramento hitting halftime leading 60-59 thanks to a corner 3 from Harrison Barnes at the buzzer. It was the team’s only made 3 of the quarter.

Sabonis went back to the locker room after taking a knee to the midsection from Towns, but he returned for the fourth quarter.

Huerter, who was on the dunking end of an alley-oop in the third quarter, finished with eight points in 33 minutes. He was in the game during crunch time. He had a crucial offensive rebound before finding Monk in the corner for a 3 late in the fourth quarter.

Huerter was taken out of Wednesday’s game with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter and didn’t return — in part because Brown emptied the bench and played only reserves in fourth-quarter garbage time. Huerter nearly matched his point total (four) with turnovers (three).

Huerter afterwards indicated he was unhappy with his minutes, saying: “I wish I was out there to help us more though” when Denver opened up the game and outscored Sacramento by 35 points in the second and third quarters.

Brown was asked before Friday’s game about Huerter publicly commenting about his minutes. Brown said he had no problem with the six-year veteran not wanting to be on the bench.

“I 100% appreciate that,” Brown said. “You want guys who want to be out on the floor. I want that more than anything else.”

Brown noted Huerter has a lot of competition for playing time, particularly because the Kings needed size to go against Denver’s taller lineups. Aaron Gordon was having his way with Sacramento’s smaller defenders, going 7 of 8 from the floor with 17 points. He finished plus-40 in 24 minutes.

“It seemed like he took advantage of everybody except for HB (Barnes) and maybe Trey,” Brown said of Gordon. “And so I had to have one of those guys on the floor. So, it comes down to situations. It comes down to who’s playing well because we have a couple other guys who have stepped up and played well for us throughout the course of the season.”

The Kings entered the night in the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, 1 ½ games back of the Phoenix Suns for the No. 5 seed, one game behind the New Orleans Pelicans for No. 6 and a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for No. 7. With the win, the Kings moved ahead of Dallas for seventh.

Brown throughout the first half of the season said the standings weren’t often discussed, but that has changed with 22 games left in the season following Friday.

“We talk to our guys about it often,” Brown said. “It probably averages once out every three days of late, but we hit it with them often, as well as how many games we have left and all that other stuff just so they’re aware more than anything else.”

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