[Trending News] Timberwolves fall short as Kings win fifth straight at Target Center

The sight of DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk throwing daggers at the Timberwolves has become familiar. DeRozan has averaged more points against the Wolves than any other team in his career, while Monk’s shotmaking has keyed multiple Kings wins in Target Center over the past three seasons.

The two of them teamed up Monday night to exploit a weakened Wolves defense in a 116-114 victory over the Wolves, the fifth consecutive win for the Kings in Minnesota dating back to January 2023.

Both DeRozan (33 points) and Monk (26) found their way to the hoop for easy layups in the final minutes to prevent the Wolves from coming back on a night Sacramento led most of the way.

The Kings had just traded leading scorer De’Aaron Fox and acquire Zach LaVine on Sunday, and LaVine wasn’t available, but it didn’t matter. They still had ample firepower to take down the Wolves.

“We committed a cardinal sin. We got into an up-and-down scoring affair with a team that really likes to score it,” coach Chris Finch said. “We had to make this game about defense, and we weren’t able to do that.”

The Wolves allowed 38 points in the first quarter, and while the Wolves’ starters had plenty of scoring punch of their own, their bench was lacking in production (1-for-11 from three-point range), and then the starters couldn’t get stops in closing time. Sacramento score at least one point on every possession it had inside of three minutes. The Wolves had a chance to tie, being down three with 6.1 seconds remaining, but Jaden McDaniels (22 points) lost the ball out of bounds.

Naz Reid led the Wolves with 30 points on 12-for-19 shooting, but Anthony Edwards struggled after returning from a one-game absence because of an illness. He had 21 points on 7-for-21.

“Tired. I was just tired. I was just exhausted, but I’m cool,” Edwards said.