Malik Monk again shows why Lakers can count on him in clutch

The Lakers' Malik Monk smiles during a game.

Sports Columnist

Nov. 11, 2021 6:03 AM PT

Malik Monk’s scoring ability is instinctive, a gift that can’t be taught. Yet he did have to learn why his Lakers teammates nicknamed him “Microwave” during training camp — and why that was a significant show of respect and acceptance from a veteran roster whose superstars initially left him awestruck.

Monk, who spent his first four NBA seasons in Charlotte and signed a one-year contract with the Lakers as a free agent last summer for the minimum $1.789 million, has a history of heating up quickly and scoring in bursts. That was true of the original “Microwave,” Vinnie Johnson, who was noted for coming off the bench and scoring in quick, hot spurts as he helped the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys teams win back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.

Monk wasn’t born until 1998 and is one of the few youngsters on the league’s oldest team this season. So he can be excused for not immediately understanding what it meant when LeBron James and other Lakers revived the “Microwave” nickname and affectionately bestowed it on him. “Bron, at the beginning of the year, he told me,” Monk said.

It’s a well-earned compliment. Monk’s instant production is a welcome element on a team whose development and progress are moving at the pace of a slow cooker while they figure each other out and wait for injured players to return.

Monk scored a season-high 27 points on Wednesday, including the first five of the Lakers’ eight points in overtime, as they gritted out a 120-117 victory over the Miami Heat at an animated and loud Staples Center. Their bench shortened because of hamstring injuries suffered by Austin Reaves and Rajon Rondo a few days ago, the Lakers needed every available player to step up and be counted. Russell Westbrook responded by recording his third triple-double as a Laker with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists (to go with eight turnovers) while Anthony Davis scored 24 points, but that’s nothing unusual for either of them.

What stood out most vividly was Monk’s aggressiveness and fearlessness in stepping up in his own way as the Lakers (7-5) won their second straight overtime game and improved to 2-0 on their five-game homestand.

“Just being Malik. Be the microwave,” Westbrook said of what he saw in Monk’s performance. “When he comes in the game his job is to put the ball in the hoop, and he does that at a high level. He’s been doing it since he’s been in the league and tonight was one of those nights where he’s making plays, making big shots and timely shots for us.”

Monk gave the Lakers the lead for good at 115-114 with a pull-up 25-foot jump shot less than a minute into overtime, and he extended their lead to 117-114 with a floater with 2 minutes and 16 seconds left. He came into the game with an approach that he’d be aggressive and hope to create chances for himself and teammates, and it worked from the game’s sluggish start to its dramatic finish.

“Get to the rim and everything else will open up for everybody, not even myself, just everybody, if I attack,” he said. “They’re a paint-heavy team so you get in and you have to kick it out, make the right plays and we start doing that the second half more than we did in the first half, so that’s how we got the win.”

It helped, too, that Monk thrived when given expanded responsibilities because of the Lakers’ short bench.

“I had this role a couple of times in Charlotte last year, year before that, when a lot of guys get hurt and I had to come in and play big minutes and facilitate and do other things that I normally don’t do,” Monk said after playing 34 minutes, 33 seconds on Wednesday. “But I work on my game a lot, man, so I was really prepared for this moment.”

Although he has fit in well, it took him a little while to believe he truly belonged on the floor alongside his more accomplished teammates.

“I’m always comfortable playing basketball, but yeah, it’s kind of hard to play, I’ve never played with this many greats,” he said. “So, you gotta pick your spots and figure out when the game is going to come to you. But like I said, they’re great, so they’re always going to help me in every situation, so I’m super comfortable.

“They always give me confidence, man, whether I’m playing five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, they always give me confidence. So I’m always confident when I go in the game. I always have the same mindset because you never know what’s going to happen throughout this game, man, so I just stay locked in, try to be prepared for every situation.”

Davis, who played the 2011-12 season at the University of Kentucky before being drafted No. 1 overall by New Orleans, has long kept an eye on Monk, who played for Kentucky in the 2016-17 season before he was chosen 11th overall by Charlotte in the 2017 NBA draft. Watching Monk up close has reinforced Davis’ positive opinion of him.

“Instant scorer,” Davis said, “and we still don’t know how we got him for what we got him for. He can play. He’s a hell of a player. Shot a lot of big shots, made a lot of big shots, and this is going to continue to build his confidence in what we do.”

Together, the microwave and the slow-cooking team might be capable of producing appetizing results as the Lakers’ season goes along.