Final
Phoenix Suns at Golden State Warriors
113 – 116
2026-27 · Regular season
Kings finally win, 115-100 at Dallas, as Malik Monk, Leaky Black and Emanuel Sharp combine for 12 threes off the bench
Sacramento ends its 0-6 start with a 115-100 win in Dallas. Malik Monk, Leaky Black and Emanuel Sharp hit 12 threes off the bench, Darius Acuff Jr. scores 25 after a slow start, and Domantas Sabonis has a quiet night.
In this article
The Sacramento Kings are no longer winless. On Monday night they beat the Dallas Mavericks 115-100, ended a six-game losing streak to open the season, and became the last team in the NBA to win a game in 2026-27. Rookie Darius Acuff Jr. led all scorers with 25 points, but the night belonged as much to Doug Christie’s bench, which scored 46 points and made 12 threes, and to a defense that put the Mavericks in a hole they never got out of.
Three wings, 12 threes
Malik Monk, Leaky Black and Emanuel Sharp combined for 12 of Sacramento’s 19 threes. Monk scored a season-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, with five threes and seven assists, and finished a game-high plus-27 in 30 minutes. It was a big change from his first five games, when he had not reached double figures. He scored eight points in the second quarter and hit a 25-footer with 5.2 seconds left that gave the Kings a 54-53 halftime lead.
Black played about 25 minutes, scored 12 points, made four of his six threes and had four steals. His 25-footer early in the third quarter started a 10-2 run that put the Kings ahead for good. Sharp, in 20 minutes, made all three of his three-point attempts for nine points and finished plus-14. The Kings’ reserves shot 16-of-27 from the field in all, while Nique Clifford and Daeqwon Plowden played three minutes apiece.
The starting lineup was Acuff, Zach LaVine, De’Andre Hunter, Precious Achiuwa and Domantas Sabonis. LaVine scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, with five threes, and Achiuwa had 10 rebounds in 27 minutes. Sacramento shot 52.4 percent from the field and 44.2 percent from three (19-of-43) and won the rebounding battle 42-35.
How the game was won
Dallas missed its first 10 three-point attempts and shot 7-of-33 from three, without Kyrie Irving, who sat out for left knee management. The Mavericks’ largest lead was 38-32 in the second quarter. Zach LaVine and Acuff opened the second half with threes, and Dallas never led again after a short 65-64 edge in the third. Sacramento carried an 81-74 lead into the fourth, pushed it to 94-79 on a step-back three by Monk, and held off a Walter Clayton Jr. run that cut it to 94-87 by scoring 18 of the next 24 points. The Kings led by as many as 19.
Dallas coach Dusty May said afterward that the Kings’ bench wings were the difference. “They were the more determined team tonight. The more prepared team. And they came in here and earned it,” May said. “I want to give a lot of credit to their bench. Those guys, their backup three wings, made a combined 12 threes for 36 points.” May also said the Mavericks’ spacing around Cooper Flagg was poor and that Sacramento loaded the paint against him. Flagg finished with 17 points on 3-of-19 shooting and six turnovers, though he made all 11 of his free throws.
Dallas lost more than a game. Starting guard Max Christie went to the floor after a turnover in the second quarter, checked out in under eight minutes with no points on 0-of-5 shooting, and did not return because of a right hip injury. May said the team would reevaluate him over the next couple of days. The Mavericks, who had won three in a row, visit San Antonio on Wednesday night.
Acuff’s slow start, and his answer
Acuff had only six points at halftime and finished with 25 on 10-of-21 shooting, with six assists, five rebounds and five turnovers. It was his third straight game with at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. The Kings noted that only three other teenagers had done that: Cooper Flagg, Luka Dončić and LeBron James.
Christie said he does not worry about Acuff’s starts. “I don’t worry about his starts because he has a level of confidence in himself that he will keep playing,” he said, adding that the six assists were “very timely.” Asked what the adjustment to the NBA had been, Acuff talked about slowing down. “Just slowing down a little bit,” he said, then spoke of “knowing when to pass, knowing when to shoot” and of finding chemistry with his teammates, which he said was getting better every game and every practice.
Sabonis and the clip that went viral
Sabonis played 31 minutes and had nine points on 4-of-4 shooting, with seven rebounds and four assists, a quiet line on a night when his future in Sacramento was a topic before tip-off. We covered the reports about him, the team source’s denial and Christie’s earlier comments in our story from Monday night. We found no postgame comment from Sabonis about his future in the coverage we reviewed.
Early in the game, Matt George, who covers the Kings, posted a short clip of Acuff and Sabonis at a stoppage. George narrates it sarcastically, as proof that the two “hate each other,” and adds, “Man, the national media was right.” His caption was just as pointed: “Imma go write an article based on this interaction alone. Hope this gets aggregated.” The post had passed 1.6 million views by Tuesday morning, Cairo time. It is a joke, not a report of any dispute, and a pointed answer to the weekend’s coverage.
What’s next
The Kings are 1-6 and return home to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PT (5 a.m. Thursday, Cairo time). One win does not undo a 0-6 start, but Monday gave Christie a three-wing bench rotation and a defensive plan that worked, and the next few games will show whether he can keep it.
Join the discussion
0 commentsTalk basketball. Keep it respectful. You can use a name or stay Anonymous. Comments publish immediately.
Be the first to start the conversation.