Sacramento's 124-123 win over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena was for Mike Brown.
After the game, Malik Monk explained why the win was for Brown.
"Do it for him," Monk told Morgan Ragan and Matt Barnes on "Kings Postgame Live." "[De'Aaron] Fox got fouled obviously and it wasn't called and we were getting hacked the whole game and not getting any calls.
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Throughout the first half, the officiating crew comprised of Zach Zarba, Karl Lane and Brent Haskill often missed calls on both teams. After a handful of calls were missed early in the third quarter, Brown took it upon himself to fight for his players and gave Zarba a piece of his mind.
Perhaps Brown gave too much of his mind to Zarba as the former was quickly ejected with 9:09 remaining in the third quarter.
However, instead of folding, the Kings stepped up.
Domantas Sabonis had 12 points and eight rebounds in the second half, while Fox had 10 points and seven assists. Not to be outdone, Monk scored 17 of his 24 points off the bench in the second half as well.
"We just knew we had to come out and keep fighting together," Sabonis told reporters postgame. "No excuses, everything is going to be hard. If it's not hard, it's not fun."
The Kings' center also added that Brown's ejection got the team fired up and made it more important to win.
"He's a great coach and one of our best players got a teach wasn't getting fouls," Sabonis continued. "Fox was playing really hard all game, he has our back. So that was big time.
"I feel like that kind of changed the whole mood."
Although the Kings and Raptors shot similar percentages from the floor in the second half, Sacramento made six more 3-pointers than Toronto (9-3). It is important to note that while the Kings attempted 21 3-pointers compared to Toronto's eight, Sacramento's willingness to win by any means is indicative of Brown's coaching.
"I think the fact that he fought so hard for his players and then the players responded," Kings assistant coach Jordi Fernandez said after the game.
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Fernandez noted that the hard-fought win was a "collective" effort for Brown.
"I think it as an amazing win ... it feels good," he continued. "I think this is for coach, obviously fighting for all of us and then very happy for the players.
"They made it happen."
The Kings players certainly did make it happen.
Just a day after a crushing loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Sabonis had 21 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists in 40 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Fox had 27 points, 10 assists and six rebounds in his best game since returning from a foot injury.
When it was all said and done, Sacramento had three players score 20 or more (Sabonis, Fox and Monk) and had six players score in double digits overall.
"Everybody had been getting great shots, we knew it was going to fall. Mike told us it was going to fall at some point so we just had to stick with the game plan and stick to how we play offense," Monk concluded.
With another 20-point, 20-rebound, five-assist performance, Sabonis ties Chris Webber for the most in Kings franchise history with three. What's more, that is the 26-year-old's eighth career game with 20-plus points and 20-plus rebounds.
Lastly, Sabonis now leads the NBA in double-doubles with 19.
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As the Kings' six-game road trip comes to a close Friday with a matchup against the Detroit Pistons, Sacramento has to be glad to have been able to salvage a win in Toronto, despite being down by as many as 16 in the second quarter.
Although the players did a lot of heavy lifting, Brown ultimately was the fire that the team needed to kickstart their competitive engines to get the win.
And that is why this Kings win was for Brown.