The Kings finally won the second game of a back-to-back on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center -- but it certainly didn't come easy.
Sacramento and the Orlando Magic went back-and-forth long past regulation, but the Kings ultimately walked off the court with a 138-135 double-overtime victory in front of a roaring home crowd behind standout performances from Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis.
After starting the 2023-24 NBA season 0-4 in the latter half of back-to-backs, Monk was happy to help Sacramento get the monkey off its back thanks largely in part to his 37 points on 12-of-20 shooting, nine assists and three rebounds in 46 minutes off the bench.
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"I expect us to fight, man, because we've been together for a little minute," Monk told reporters after the game of the Kings' resiliency. "And we've been talking about fighting, especially on back-to-backs ... We haven't won one, and this was out first one we won, and it was great in this fashion because it was a dogfight.
"We know we can do it, so we've just got to continue to build off this."
Sacramento's exciting win over Orlando came on the heels of a deflating home loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, during which Monk scored just six points and got into a heated exchange with Kings coach Mike Brown. Monk admitted he came into Wednesday's game with a chip on his shoulder -- but that's nothing new.
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"I always got extra motivation, man, when I step on the court," Monk told reporters postgame. "Me and Mike go at it all the time. It's not our last time, probably. So yeah, that was nothing. That's just us being competitors in the heat of the moment."
Along with Monk's incredible performance, Sabonis recorded his seventh triple-double of the season with 22 points, 23 rebounds and 12 assists while Keegan Murray finished with a 28-point, 12-rebound double-double. It was enough to overcome Magic star forward Paolo Banchero's 43 points on a night where Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox shot just 27 percent from the field.
And after blowing a 16-point lead early in the second half, Monk and Sabonis led the charge to help Sacramento rally back for the win in double OT.
The Kings might not have gone to double OT, either, if it weren't for an overturned call with 3.1 seconds left. Banchero inadvertently tossed the basketball out of bounds, and after the Kings originally were awarded possession, the call oddly was overturned.
Still, everything was working for Monk as the guard shot 7 of 13 from 3-point range and drove his way to the basket on more than one occasion. He relishes games like these, he said after the win.
"That's the game," Monk said. "That's why you want to play basketball, man, to be in moments like this, game tied up, overtime. What are you going to do?
"I live for these moments."