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.
