The Sacramento Kings had one of their best regular seasons in a long time. They ended the NBA's longest active playoff drought by grabbing the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference and earning home-court advantage at least through the first round of the NBA playoffs. Their reward was a first-round matchup against Stephen Curry and the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

While the Kings showed extreme mental toughness winning Game 6 in the Warriors building and forcing the series back to their home court, their inexperience, combined with a Stephen Curry onslaught sent them packing. Following the game, Kings guard Malik Monk admitted that this one is going to hurt for a while, per Sean Cunningham of Fox40.

“Stay with it, like I said it's going to sting for a long time. We just got to come back ready from the get-go, from training camp,” Monk said. “I was just talking to the guys. This s**t feels weird. I'm going home with nothing to do. It's weird. I definitely want to be playing again at this time next year.”

Malik Monk's play this year was a big reason for the Kings' success. During the regular season, Monk averaged 13.5 points per game, 2.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists with splits of 44.8 percent shooting from the field, 35.9 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 88.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line. In the NBA Playoffs through the first six games of the series, Monk averaged 19.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists with shooting splits of 43 percent from the field, 35.5 percent from the three-point line and 90.9 percent from the free-throw line.