The Wolves' Anthony Edwards (5) defends the Kings' Keegan Murray (13) in the first quarter Monday at Target Center. (Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The sight of DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk throwing daggers at the Timberwolves has become familiar. DeRozan has averaged more points against the Wolves than any other team in his career, while Monk’s shotmaking has keyed multiple Kings wins in Target Center over the past three seasons.

The two of them teamed up Monday night to exploit a weakened Wolves defense in a 116-114 victory over the Wolves, the fifth consecutive win for the Kings in Minnesota dating back to January 2023.

Both DeRozan (33 points) and Monk (26) found their way to the hoop for easy layups in the final minutes to prevent the Wolves from coming back on a night Sacramento led most of the way.

The Kings had just traded leading scorer De’Aaron Fox and acquire Zach LaVine on Sunday, and LaVine wasn’t available, but it didn’t matter. They still had ample firepower to take down the Wolves.

“We committed a cardinal sin. We got into an up-and-down scoring affair with a team that really likes to score it,” coach Chris Finch said. “We had to make this game about defense, and we weren’t able to do that.”

The Wolves allowed 38 points in the first quarter, and while the Wolves’ starters had plenty of scoring punch of their own, their bench was lacking in production (1-for-11 from three-point range), and then the starters couldn’t get stops in closing time. Sacramento score at least one point on every possession it had inside of three minutes. The Wolves had a chance to tie, being down three with 6.1 seconds remaining, but Jaden McDaniels (22 points) lost the ball out of bounds.

Naz Reid led the Wolves with 30 points on 12-for-19 shooting, but Anthony Edwards struggled after returning from a one-game absence because of an illness. He had 21 points on 7-for-21.

“Tired. I was just tired. I was just exhausted, but I’m cool,” Edwards said.

The Wolves have now lost two consecutive games after they had won five in a row. What could have been a time to push their win streak to seven before the schedule gets more difficult before the All-Star break has now turned into a missed opportunity. Saturday, the Wolves lost to the lowly Wizards with their top four scorers missing all or most of the game. Then Monday they let a winnable game slip because their normally reliable defense was inconsistent.

“We weren’t into them. We weren’t taking away the things they wanted to do,” Finch said. “They’re all gifted scorers. They were able to get to their spots early and when they do that, they’re hard to stop.”

BOXSCORE: Sacramento 116, Wolves 114

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The Kings also have a few midrange scorers, such as Monk and DeRozan, who are comfortable operating in that part of the floor. The Wolves’ defense with Rudy Gobert is willing to concede midrange shots in order to protect the three-point line and the rim. The problem was, the Wolves were conceding plenty of open threes early, and the Kings hit 5-for-9 in the first quarter.

Then Monk and DeRozan got to their spots in the midrange. With Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo out, the Wolves have been incorporating more of their youth into the rotation off the bench. But the offensive production wasn’t where Finch would like it from that group.

“They gotta put the ball in the basket for us a little bit better,” Finch said.

But that wouldn’t have been a problem had the starters showed up with the right mentality on defense, said Gobert, who had 19 points and 13 rebounds.

“We put them in a good mood to start the game,” Gobert said. “You hit a lot of shots and you’re comfortable. We make them feel good and they have really good offensive players. They felt it was going to be a comfortable night, and we played who was going to score the most? When we do that, we can lose.”