Monk says interim coach Christie has ‘simplified’ things for Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After hitting a new low following a miserable losing streak that led to the firing of Mike Brown, the Kings have managed to turn things around somewhat.
Sacramento’s 138-133 win over the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night had the Kings’ victory beam lighting up the 916 skyline for the third straight game.
The win also gave Doug Christie a 3-1 record since he was named Kings interim head coach last Friday. And after Friday’s big win, guard Malik Monk spoke with NBC Sports California’s Morgan Ragan and Kyle Draper on “Kings Postgame Live” to explain how Christie’s leadership has helped bring about a necessary change for Sacramento.
“He just simplified a lot of things for us,” Monk said. “And he told us that our main goal is to win at home, so we just tried to bring the energy here. And he simplified the game for us in terms of attack and defense, and we don’t think so much about that after. So big.” to Doug.”
Before this three-game win streak, the Kings had an overall record of 13-19 and were 6-12 on their own Golden 1 Center home floor.
Instead of taking advantage of one of the best home court advantages in the league and digging out of a subtle hole they found themselves in, they went 0-5 in the homestand with losses to the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers (twice ), Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons.
As a result, Brown was fired and Christie was temporarily promoted.
Monk and the Kings now look to Sunday’s game against their NorCal rivals, the Golden State Warriors, in hopes of extending their win streak to four for the first time during the 2024-2025 NBA season.
And they’ll rely on keeping things simple as they try to climb the Western Conference standings.
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