The Sacramento Kings Maurice Harkless (8) scores on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s  forward Aleksej Pokusevski (17) at Golden One Center in Sacramento on Sun May 9, 2021 (AP News photo)

Kings Destroy OKC 126-98

By Barbara Mason

While it has been a disappointing season for the Sacramento Kings they have been playing some pretty good basketball in their past few games. They have been good in the absence of DeAaron Fox who was cleared to rejoin the team two days ago.

With only four game left in the season a good finish would be something for fans to take with them into the next season, a season that will more than likely have a larger crowd able to attend games. It would also be nice for fans to be able to see Fox in the final four but he is not playing tonight and there is no certainty about the final three.

Rookie Tyrese Haliburton is out for the season with a knee injury. The good news is that the injury is not as serious as previously thought. He avoided what could have been a very significant injury. Buddy Hield was back after being cleared.

Tonight the Kings took on the OKC Thunder. The Kings are in twelfth place and the Thunder in thirteenth place. Neither team will be making an appearance in this year’s playoffs.

In the first quarter of this game the Kings came out strong and as the clock ran out they led by the score of 33-25. They had at one time during the quarter led by twelve points. Maurice Harkless had the high score for the quarter with 12 points.

At the half, the Kings had really taken control of the game and led by the score of 71-51. Harkless finished the half with 16 points and Buddy Hield had entered the game in the first quarter. Terence Davis was terrific off the bench with 13 points in twelve minutes of play.

After three quarters the Kings led by an impressive 106-71. The final score was 126-98. The Kings clearly dominated in this game although the Thunder did outscore them in the fourth quarter 27-20. The bench was instrumental in this win with 51 points.

The Kings will be back on court Tuesday night taking on OKC one more time. Tipoff is at 7:00PM.