The Los Angeles Lakers welcomed Malik Monk to the court Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets.
The 23-year-old guard had not played in over a week after being placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocol, so the Lakers didn’t have his bench scoring available for five games.
However, the Lakers announced Monk was cleared to return the Saturday morning.
Monk did not miss a beat in his first game back. In 35 minutes off the bench, Monk dropped 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting overall and 3-of-7 from deep while adding four rebounds, three assists and a block.
He explained what he wanted to prove after being sidelined.
“That’s a good question. Sh-t, that I’m back. That’s really it, man. That I’m here,” Monk said.
Even though he had a strong performance, the Lakers were still plagued by poor energy and effort, which caused the squad to trail by as many as 23 in the second half.
The Lakers came back in the fourth quarter, which Monk played a crucial part in, and he said L.A. needs to play with the same intensity every game instead of in spurts.
“We all know what we got to do. We’ve been saying this all year, man. We just got to do it. We just got to come out here and play like we did in the third and the fourth quarter when we went on that run,” Monk said. “The guys know. Everybody knows. We just got to go out there and really do the stuff.”
