MINNEAPOLIS — Malik Monk scored 35 of his 39 points after halftime and the Sacramento Kings beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-120 in overtime Friday night.
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota’s leading scorer, had 11 points in the first half but did not play after halftime for personal reasons, according to team officials.
Minnesota led 120-117 midway through the overtime period before Monk scored back-to-back points. The Wolves had a chance to tie it with 17.5 seconds left, but Naz Reid missed a corner 3 and Trey Lyles made a free throw to clinch the win.
Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis had 21 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists before fouling out in overtime.
Keegan Murray scored 17 points, Davion Mitchell 16 and Harrison Barnes 14 for the Kings, who were missing leading scorer De’Aaron Fox, who missed his second straight game with a bruised left knee.
Monk made 16 of 29 shots, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, to make up for the lack of Fox’s 26.9 points per game.
“Great teams always have two or three guys like that where sometimes you don’t have to call a play, you just say, ‘Here’s the ball, go make a play, for yourself or for your teammates,’” the Kings coach said. Mike Brown said. “And Malik did that. Especially with Fox out, we needed someone to defend us and Malik was the guy who did it.”
Jaden McDaniels led the Timberwolves with 26 points. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 19 points, Reid 18 points and Rudy Gobert 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Playing against a much bigger team, the Kings turned things around with 14 offensive rebounds, which led to 20 second-chance points.
“A lot of times we’ve done a great job defensively, and then they get these rebounds, they get a 3-and-out, and it hurts,” Gobert said. “Instead of (we) being able to get a stop, they get a wide open shot.”
Monk scored 11 of Sacramento’s final 13 points in the third quarter to extend a one-point lead into a 91-82 advantage.
“I had to go at some point,” Monk said of his second-half surge. “I was getting to the rim and my mid and floater opened things up for me.”
The Wolves opened the fourth on a 14-4 run for a 96-95 lead on McDaniels’ 3-pointer. But Monk responded with a layup and a breakaway dunk to put the Kings back on top.
Gobert made one of two free throws with 40.1 seconds left to tie the score at 115-115 and send it to overtime.
For the second consecutive game, the Wolves dug themselves a hole early. Two nights after falling behind Memphis 14-0, Minnesota started 1 of 4 with three turnovers on its first seven possessions. Meanwhile, the Kings made four of their first six 3-point attempts and took an 18-4 lead.
“Tonight, I think our slow start and offensive rebounding are the things that sank us,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said.
The Wolves’ offense also stalled at the worst possible time. After taking a three-point lead in overtime, they came up empty on six straight possessions.
“We tried to put it together all night,” Brown said. “We have to have a certain level of physicality to win games, because we’re not going to be able to score 125 points every game.”
FOLLOWING
Kings: Host the Bulls Monday night.
Timberwolves: Host the Clippers on Sunday.
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