I hope you all have a super time today, having spent all week looking forward to today’s Sunday afternoon matchup between the Sacramento Kings and Oklahoma City Thunder. The NBA really wanted to make today special so it’s one of only two NBA games on the docket, and they made the game early enough so fans can go out and celebrate afterwards.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Sunday, February 11th, 12:00 PM PT
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Kings have won both their matchups against the Thunder this year, with the last win coming in mid-December with the Kings winning 128 to 123. Both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (43 points) and De’Aaron Fox (41 points) showed out, but it was Sacramento’s bench that proved to be the real difference maker; Malik Monk scored 18 points and Keon Ellis had a career-high 17 while the Thunder bench only scored 24 points total.
Three in the Key
Momentum before the Break
The next three games before the break are all on the road and they’re all against premier teams in the West. The Kings are coming off a nice win against the Nuggets in Sacramento, and they’ve had some success against Oklahoma City already this season. Beating the Thunder today would be a nice bit of momentum heading into a tough back-to-back against Phoenix and Denver, and it would also give the Kings the potential tiebreaker in the standings with the Thunder this season. Plus, with how tight the rest of the West is, every game matters. The Kings are only 5.5 games back of 1st place and 4.5 back of the Thunder for 4th. But they’re also just a game back from slipping all the way to 8th and 3.5 back of slipping to 9th.
Control the Glass
The Kings have won the rebounding battle in both games against the Thunder this season and should look to do so again tonight. The Thunder are an incredibly talented team but if there’s one thing they really lack it’s true size on the interior. Chet Holmgren is really tall and long, but he barely weighs more than De’Aaron Fox. Oklahoma City didn’t manage to get anyone at the trade deadline to fix that (they did add Gordon Hayward as a nice veteran bench piece but he won’t play until after the break) but they did sign Bismack Biyombo who should help a little bit. Still, this is a game that the Kings should dominate the glass and hopefully limit second-chance opportunities.
Perimeter Defense
The Kings have had a bad habit of allowing certain teams to get red hot from distance against them, but surprisingly the Thunder haven’t been one of them. Oklahoma City is 3rd in the entire NBA at 3P% (39.1%) a game but in their two games against the Kings they have only managed to shoot 27.3% (18 of 66) from distance. Is that just an outlier or have the Kings figured something out against this Thunder team? Given that Oklahoma City has had ELEVEN players averaging over 38% from three for the season, I’m guessing that’s more outlier than anything. The Kings will need to stay disciplined on the perimeter because if this Thunder team hits their threes at a higher rate than they usually do (something the Kings have allowed other teams to do far too often this season), it could be a long game.
Prediction
This great battle of Northern California against the Midwest should be exciting. I expect Sacramento to rush out early on the fastbreak and depend on their big frontline while Oklahoma City’s relies more on a passing attack and letting loose from deep. It should be a fun one that goes down to the wire.
Kings 121, Thunder 117
Fan Predictions
None today since it’s such an early game and there’s some other event going on today that is sure to distract everyone. Also, update for the leaderboard since I’ve seen some ask, I am planning on tallying up and updating the board during the All-Star break.
OKC still sits near the top;
I keep thinking the Thunder will drop.
We’ve beaten them twice—
Again would be nice—
As Keegan dunks over Chet’s flop!
+1 Where will the Kings watch the Super Bowl after getting their 31st win this season?
As a Raiders fan this unironically is the most important game of the day for me 😞
Try to remember the worst thing that can happen to a fan is to get to the championship and lose. Fingers crossed. 🙂
I stopped giving a sh*t about the NFL years ago. Used to be a die-hard Niners fan. Whether I felt good or gloomy during the week used to depend on whether they won on Sunday, but no plans to watch the game today.
Early game means an almost normal time for me and some other international Kings fans.
Thanks for doing this nearly every game, Akis.
I am really pleased with the game previews. Everyone is different and highly informative.
Akis, thank you for all of your ongoing contributions. I remember last year you were behind on updating the leaderboard due to life circumstances. I am wishing you better blessings at this time.
To the Kings, get better wishes. I know you’re not sick, I just want you to get better (at basketball.)
Used to be a big NFL fan and now I can’t even imagine why that was ever true. The game is slow, boring, and 95% ads. Didn’t even realize the super bowl was today until my fiance asked if I was going to a watch party. Kings v. Thunder sounds exponentially more interesting to me.
Prediction: Kings win and Taylor Swift is mentioned >5 times during the SB broadcast.
Gonna be at a Super Bowl watch party at my Aunt and Uncle’s with some of my extended family today, so probably will miss most of the game. Gotta get all the wins we can get with a tight race in the standings. Go Kings/Niners!
I really don’t like the matchups in this one, sans Sabonis. He should feast against Chet, but everyone else may struggle. OKC is a really good basketball team. Have they lapped the Kings?
it’s okay, the Kings have done well against OKC ever since Harkless dunked on them.
strategy against Shai? whoever guards him seems to pick up a lot fouls.
Sag off and let him shoot threes.
Hope the Kings are OK in OKC
Bested Denver let’s take down another top team.
Ah. Opponents getting wide open 3s. Surprise!
Impromptu game thread: uff, no me gusta early open threes
Fox got cooked by Dort
How many good looks from 3 have we already missed?
0/7, thank you Thunder play-by-play
HB should attack Giddey when that’s the matchup
Threes not falling.
looks like a long night may be in store for us.
He’d never say it, but Domas has been playing like a guy who’s pissed about an All Star snub
he always plays hard
Yay, good Malik!
Rough start on shooting, hopefully things mean-regress and they’ll be fine. Keep generating those good looks
That might have been the best defensive possession this team has had all year
Davion has no business trying to dribble around SGA.
that foul they called on Davion was total BS
SGA is the league’s premier foul merchant these days
I know, he’s really good. but Shai just fell down, trying to get physical. not a foul
Where’s Fox? Is this a scheduled loss for Fox? SGA, on the other hand, is showing why he’s an All Star.
He just had zero imprint while he was on the bench!!
Speaking of “zero”, that pretty much describes Fox’s stat line.
Oh wait, he’s a -6 plus/minus…
Right on. Kept them under 30. Now 3 more quarters of that, attack the paint and share the ball.
grab that rebound Fox
Thunder have some real tough perimeter defenders
getting sloppy
Back to back shit passes leading to fast breaks
Man, I hope Brown benches Fox to send a little message some day – just for like part of a game. He’s not helping, and in fact, he’s hurting the Kings.
Fox and Monk are TO machines this quarter. Sloppy.
OKC has awesome length and versatility on defense. Guards are gonna have a tough day. Need Domas to take it into their chests.
Fox playing like he wants to hurry up and get to the post game SB party the team is holding. Meanwhile, SGA pouring in an early 15 points to lead his team so far
Fox is clearly playing through some sort of injury – his movement any time there is a whistle is just all wrong. It might make sense to just shut him down until after the ASG at this point
Has to be the right shoulder. Seems every game he favors it any time he takes a good shot to that area. He’s been a shadow of himself for over a good month now minus a few standout games.
Shoulder or back (maybe both?) – his posture just seems way off between play
But we don’t really see him limping or nursing any part of his body. This is Fox. It’s that simple. Inconsistent motor and mental lapses. Low IQ basketball.
Watch him when there’s a whistle – his posture goes really strange, Shoulder pain seems very likely, but I also don’t have a weird vendetta against this team’s best player.
Weird vendetta? That’s weird to say. Sorry I triggered your feelings. If Fox is injured to the point that he hurts the team’s chance of winning, which has been the case recently, then he shouldn’t be on the floor.
no excuses, he went kangz today
Fox may need a new gaming chair to help his posture.
with Fox going kangzy, the team needs HB to step up
Fox finally with some positive numbers to the box score.
Have we ever successfully trapped a team’s star player?
OKC’s forest of limbs is slowing the fast playstyle of the guards. They don’t score a ton of points, but I suspect they’ll hold us to fewer.
Shai and Williams getting a LOT of tough buckets
Keegan’s been playing great except for on wide open threes
Dumb challenge
Even thought unsuccessful, that’s the kind of challenge you need to call. It would have put 3 on the board and taken a foul off of Lyles. Way better than challenging an out of bounds call that simply changes possession. I’m of the opinion to save those for more impactful plays that effect the game in multiple ways.
Nah. No chance of getting overturned.
You are missing my point. I was saying that is the kind of play you challenge, not the stupid out of bounds challenges that don’t effect the boxscore. IMO, save your challenges for when you take points on or off the board or overturns a critical foul. That one fit both categories in points and a foul.
Adding…Brown has blown challenges time and time agian on out of bounds and meaningless fouls in the first quarter. That’s a problem. They have no impact on the game.
Do you have a vendetta against Brown or what? LOL. Kidding.
ok. But the most important category is that you have very good chance to overturn the actual call.
No, terrible challenge with no chance of success. Ticky tac call but no shot, zero chance ever it gets overturned as he clearly wasn’t set.
Aaaaand that’s another failed challenge. It’s a BS foul but a foul nonetheless
I thought that screen was fine? Oh, challenge… hmmm
He sold the hell out of it but that is certainly not getting overturned. Another bad challenge by Brown
Another terrible challenge by coach lol
Yesterday I heard that the Mavs challenges were successful 76% of the time.
That’s huge.
We must be at about 30%.
Even 30% feels high
There has to be a webpage out there that tracks challenges. I’d also point out that Brown defers to someone on the bench for review. He’s getting bad advise from one of his assistants.
Was Lindsay Harding in charge of replays last season? It seems we had better success then.
At least it’s better than our freethrow percentage. But seriously someone has to be fired or reassigned advising these challenges.
i haven’t seen numbers from this season, but I have seen numbers updated through mid-January for the last 5 years. Brown stuck out in a lot of ways. Low success rate–approx. 40%–although not the lowest. Challenges a lot. Also challenges before the 4th quarter more than any other coach.
OKC on a SEGABABA, 2nd half …
None of their players played big minutes yesterday because they fell way behind so early. SGA led them with 29 minutes.
Still 29 minutes more then our guys…
Murray looking like Sabonis to begin the 3rd!
Hey Fox just said he feels pretty good. What a clusterfuc%$#!
Huerter is kangz today also
now time for desperation ball, brought to you by Kangz
Time for Fox to get aggressive to cut the lead to 15.
Every time the Kings make a bit of a run, Thunder respond right back to build the lead back up to double digits. Hasn’t really felt like the Kings have been in this game and now the Thunder look to be putting it completely away here in the 3rd as the deficit has ballooned to 20
“Honestly, it’s puzzling me recently.” Kayte on Fox not getting to the FT line. LOL.
Kayte giving us a lesson on trust and respect. Can’t wait to hear 4th quarter blowout Kayte.
3 straight possession with Monk not passing. He plays too much hero ball when playing with the bench.
Len’s length is having an impact
LOL
Len has those Mikki Moore hands
the whole team has them today.
Fox in, Monk out at a pivotal point in the game. Make it make sense
Ugh, Fox is back in. They were playing better without him today.
I will never complain about Davion going 3/3 from deep
Kings battling. Another run here to get within striking distance
Sometimes you just have to hang in there and hope to hit a heater at the end. Not feeling great about this game but it’s looking doable
Please get Keegan in for defense, can’t let this run end.
Davion 4/4
We have secretly replaced Davion Mitchell with Steph Curry, let’s see if anyone notices
Please for the love of god we need Keegan’s defense
That will probably do it
Thunder just keep answering
So Keon Ellis is going to close the game after spending 2 months in the Phantom Zone?
Especially when Davion was playing great! What the heck?
Almost had a chance to get it back, but dumb mistakes and bad rotations get us once again.
Caught bits and pieces of the game. Same Kings. Lack of defense, shot selection was mediocre, turned the ball over in critical moments.
Back to the play-in we go. Let’s go giant meteor to crash directly into Allegiant Stadium!
Discombobulated coaching. Weird.
that’s 2 out of the last 3 games where Fox has gone Kangz. time for a medical check-up.
Team stuck in neutral while Thunder, Pelicans, Rockets and Jazz improve. Don’t think the front office recognizes the peril.
Badge Legend