Timberwolves come up just short in nail-biting loss to Kings

Target Center played the song "What Does the Fox Say?" during the Sacramento Kings' pregame introductions Monday.

That was a not-so-subtle tribute to star guard De'Aaron Fox, whom they traded to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. Despite not having Fox's offensive skillset, the Kings found plenty of offense early on and got timely buckets from DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk late in a 116-114 Minnesota Timberwolves loss Monday night at Target Center in Minneapolis.

The Wolves (27-23) were playing catch up for most of the night, and the final nails in the coffin didn't come until the waning minutes. DeRozan made a jumper for a 106-101 Kings lead with 1 minute, 31 seconds remaining. While Naz Reid got an and-1 a couple possessions later to cut it to a 108-106 deficit, DeRozan answered right back with a layup.

Minnesota took the Kings (25-24) to the bitter end as Mike Conley hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 112-111 with 9.1 seconds remaining, but the Wolves had to intentionally foul Malik Monk, who made both free throws to make it a three-point game with 6.8 seconds to play. After a timeout to advance the ball, Joe Ingles attempted to inbound it to Jaden McDaniels, but the ball was deflected out of bounds. It was ruled out on the Kings, but they challenged, and it went off of McDaniels.

Domantas Sabonis was intentionally fouled and made a pair of free throws to ice the game.

Anthony Edwards, who had 21 points on 7-for-21 shooting, hit a buzzer-beater 3 as time expired.

"We got into an up-and-down scoring affair with a team that really likes to score it," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. "We had to make this game about defense, and we weren't able to do that. We played right alongside them for most of the game, and they were going to make shots, and they made shots all throughout the game as a result.

"Our defense is not where it needs to be right now."

DeRozan finished with a game-high 33 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Monk had 26 points and eight boards.

Keegan Murray opened the floodgates for the Kings in the first quarter as he shot lights out on his way to 17 first-quarter points. He finished with 19. Reid matched him for the Wolves, scoring 16 of his team-high 30 points in the opening frame. Reid, who was questionable coming into the game with a finger injury, didn't appear to be affected, despite having his fingers taped. He shot 12 for 19 from the field, including 5 for 9 from 3-point range. He had five boards and three assists.

Jaden McDaniels had another nice offensive night with 22 points, seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Rudy Gobert had 19 points and 13 rebounds. Jaylen Clark was the leading scorer off the bench with seven points and an assist.

The Wolves will look to bounce back Wednesday when they host the Chicago Bulls for a 7 p.m. tipoff.