The Sacramento Kings had one of their best seasons in franchise history and finally ended the NBA’s longest active playoff drought. They earned home court advantage in the first round with their third place finish and they pulled off a big Game 1 win against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Malik Monk has been a huge part of the Kings offense this season and he showed up in a major way in Game 1. Malik Monk went a perfect 14-14 from the free throw line including a couple of clutch ones. The perfect mark tied Ed McCauley in 1957 for the most free-throws without a miss in a playoff debut.
Per the ABC broadcast, at 14-14 FT, Malik Monk tied a record set by Ed McCauley in 1957 for most free throws without a miss in an NBA playoff debut. AK
— Kamenetzky Brothers (@KamBrothers) April 16, 2023
Malik Monk has always been a good free throw shooter with a career mark of 84.9 percent. If there were any questions as to how Monk would handle his first playoff action, he definitely answered them. In addition to his perfect game from the line, Monk dropped 32 points off the bench on 8-13 shooting from the field including 2-4 from the three-point line.
This season Monk has been averaging 13.5 points per game, 2.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists with shooting splits of 44.8 percent shooting from the field, 35.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 88.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line. For the Kings to beat the Warriors in this series, they will need strong production from Monk just like in Game 1.
If Monk can continue to draw contact and get to the free-throw line at this rate, that will go a long way towards the Kings winning this series.
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