By Tony Renteria

AP photo: Sacramento Kings DeMarcus Cousins who led the Kings with 36 points on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center never too shy to ask an official a question came away with a team leading 36 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder

SACRAMENTO– The Sacramento Kings (5-9) played host in the Golden One Center to the Oklahoma Thunder (8-7) on the eve of Thanksgiving coming away with a 116-101 win for the hometown team.

Sacramento had been plagued all season with bad third quarter play but rallied behind a strong 36 point game performance by DeMarcus Cousins and pushed the Thunder around in third by outscoring them 36-27.

Cousins who has been source of constant trade rumors though talk radio has tried to push through for another All Star year with quality stat line tonight of 36 points on 14-28 shooting and 13 rebounds with eleven of those on the defensive end.

Darren Collison added in 21 points to help from the two guard position as the Kings beat a team with a winning record for a change.  Rudy Gay also played well with 17 points as the Kings players all played alot of the minutes as the head coach Dave Joerger used a samll lineup and only played nine players tonight.

Russell Westbrook as usual played a lot of minutes, 35 and 31 points from the floor.  He had 20 points in first half but only eleven in the third as the Kings played hard on defense to pull away in the third quarter.

The Thunder look to improve on this three game road trip on Friday as they go up to Portland to play the Trailblazers on Friday while the Kings finish up on this five game home stand on Friday as well by hosting James Harden and the Houston Rockets.