With the golden opportunity in his hands, Malik Monk didn’t hesitate to take over and lead the Sacramento Kings’ ongoing surge.
As De’Aaron Fox got listed inactive due to a right glute contusion, Doug Christie elected to start the hotshot sixth man to fill the void of the franchise guard against the Golden State Warriors.
As such, the Kings’ interim head coach didn’t make a mistake as Monk blazed to power Sacramento in its biggest win of the 2024-25 season thus far.
Starting for the 16th time this season, Monk balled out to charge the red-hot Kings atop the Warriors by clawing a 129-99 one-sided victory on Sunday night.
Right in front of the sellout crowd of Chase Center, Monk silenced every single Warriors fan with his scoring brilliance and aggressiveness. The Kings star led the way with 26 points, going 9-of-14 from the field while sinking five three-pointers.
He also chipped in 14 huge assists and was a threat defensively, tallying four steals across 29 minutes of the wire-to-wire play.
Monk’s massive step up couldn’t be more significant for Christie as it extended the Kings’ win streak to four since inheriting the coaching keys of the franchise upon Mike Brown’s dismissal.
“I’m so proud of that kid,” Christie said of Monk. “Before I was sitting in this seat, we’ve had multiple conversations just about everything, and I’ve always told him, ‘Believe in yourself. I believe in you.
“You are a tremendous, fantastic player, and play through your mistakes.’ You’re going to make them. This is a game of mistakes. Who makes the least amount of mistakes usually wins the ballgame.
“He is just about as free as I’ve ever seen him. We’ll live with some of the things he does and his greatness will continue to shine because the kid is great.”
For Monk, his promising performance against the Warriors can be credited to the new Kings leadership being implemented by Christie.
As the new bench boss on the sidelines, Christie mainly emphasized ball movement and communication. As such, the unselfishness of the entire team produced 31 total assists — their third 30+ dimes over the last five games since Christie assumed the interim coaching role.
“We bought in to what DC is doing,” Monk said. “We all just bought into it, and we all feel good and confident in what he’s saying.
“He played before so I think he knows how to say it to us a little better than people that didn’t play the game before.”
Beaming with momentum out of their sizzling skid, Monk and the Kings will look to extend their winning ways as they’ll face the Miami Heat on Monday for the second night of their back-to-back outing.
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