{"id":553188,"date":"2026-01-22T13:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553188\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:09:33","slug":"malik-monk-narrowly-avoids-disaster-before-monster-dunk-vs-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553188\/","title":{"rendered":"Malik Monk narrowly avoids disaster before monster dunk vs. Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/sacramento-kings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Kings<\/a> suffered their third straight loss after <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/toronto-raptors\/raptors-perfect-domantas-sabonis-trade-proposal-kings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">getting pummeled by the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, 122-109, at Golden 1 Center on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings, who were on a four-game winning streak entering the game, had a strong start, taking a nine-point lead at halftime, 61-52. They, however, failed to sustain it, as the Raptors slowly cut the deficit to complete the come-from-behind victory.<\/p>\n<p>For what it&#8217;s worth, the Kings had the highlight of the evening courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/a86e08f3\/malik-monk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malik Monk<\/a>. After forcing a turnover in the second quarter, Monk got the ball on the break. He almost stumbled in evading Jamal Shead with a behind-the-back dribble. But he gathered himself quickly before <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/2014187347689030042\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">going up for the dunk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Malik Monk had Jamal Shead on the FLOOR before throwing it down in transition \ud83d\udd25 <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uFnWkKtcFx\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/uFnWkKtcFx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/2014187347689030042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The athletic guard had the whole venue rocking after his nifty move.<\/p>\n<p>Monk finished with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, four rebounds, and three assists in 25 minutes off the bench. He has regained his spot in the rotation after a stretch of DNPs in the past few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Westbrook had 23 points, three rebounds, three assists, and three steals to pace the Kings, while Zach LaVine chipped in 19 points and five assists.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings, who are groping for form amid a woeful season, fell to 12-33, including 9-16 at home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/toronto-raptors\/raptors-sources-trade-interest-kings-malik-monk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Monk continues to be included in trade rumors<\/a>, with the Kings looking to fix their logjam in the backcourt. DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Keon Ellis are also reportedly being shopped around by Sacramento.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple teams could be interested in Monk, as he could provide instant scoring off the bench, a valuable asset during the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sacramento Kings suffered their third straight loss after getting pummeled by the Toronto Raptors, 122-109, at Golden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,4056,1267,6,986,477,4055],"class_list":{"0":"post-553188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kings","10":"tag-malik-monk","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sacramento","13":"tag-sacramento-kings","14":"tag-sacramentokings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115938916047025659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}