by Charlie O. Mallonee

No Westbrook. No Durant. Beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road – no problem. Except there was a problem. It is the NBA Western Conference where winning on the road is one of the toughest feats for a team to pull off. The Kings were not able to make it happen on Sunday as they lost to the Thunder 101-93 in OKC.

The Kings came out of the gate slowly. The Thunder packed the paint and used their zone defense to tie up Cousins and Gay down low. They dared the Kings to make it happen with outside shots. The Kings were not able to hit shots from the wings and went into halftime down to the Thunder 52-39.

The Kings played the first half like they had an easy win in hand versus the injury plagued Thunder. OKC came out with determination and made the Kings pay for their lack of intensity.

After the intermission, the Kings continued to fall back. Sacramento was down by 17 points before they began to turn things around.

The Kings starting five stayed on the floor for almost the entire third period and outscored the Thunder 26-15 in the quarter. Down by just two points, Sacramento had put themselves in a position to possibly win the game. The only problem for the Kings was the starting five were gassed and needed rest.

The Kings second unit was not strong on offense in the game, and they were even weaker on defense. Sacramento gave up 34 points to the Thunder in the fourth quarter which made it virtually impossible for them to win the game.

Sacramento shot 45.0-percent (36 for 80) from the field. They shot a very poor 25.0-percent (6 for 24) from beyond the 3-point arc. The Kings also hurt themselves from the free throw line. First, they went to the line just 22 times in the game versus the 30-plus opportunities they had created for themselves in their previous games. Secondly, the Kings shot a terrible 68.2-percent (15 for 22) from the stripe. They had been an 82.0-percent free throw shooting team before the game on Sunday.

The Kings were also out-rebounded by the Thunder 40 to 37. Sacramento had been averaging 49.2 rebounds per game before the OKC game.

The Sacramento bench provided only 24 points in the contest. The Thunder second unit scored 40 points in the game.

The one bright spot for the Kings was the assist to turnover ratio. They recorded 23 assists against just 10 turnovers.

Rudy Gay led the Kings in scoring with 23 points to go with 10 rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins’ streak of double-doubles was broken but he did score 16 points. Ben McLemore was much improved scoring 16 points including four 3-point baskets. Darren Collison added 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists for Sacramento.

After the game, Head Coach Michael Malone said his bench must play stronger in order to win on the road. Malone also noted the Thunder packed the paint and waited for the Kings to respond with outside shots which did not happen. Malone felt the Thunder took advantage of the Kings lack of defense in the fourth quarter.

The Kings are off on Monday and will return to action on Tuesday against the very tough Mavericks in Dallas.