Oklahoma City Thunder win fifth straight over Kings

The Oklahoma City Thunder win their third straight laugher and fifth straight overall, easily dispatching of the Kings, 110-94.

This had all the makings of a trap game. Four wins against three playoff teams, Golden State Warriors coming to town on Monday, early afternoon, players would probably rather be watching March Madness, facing a team that gave up a month ago. But these are the new Oklahoma City Thunder that Tony Heim tells me I should believe in.

I’m not believing yet, but a third straight dominating performance definitely has me more optimistic than I typically am. That means I’m at around a 10 on the optimist scale. The scale goes up to 492.

Beating the Sacramento Kings isn’t really impressive. But when you’re a secured playoff team going up against an actively tanking franchise, you have to put them away early and move on. That’s what the Thunder did, and has been doing ever since Taj Gibson was named a starter. Close games and losses against these teams are really unacceptable, and what made that four-game losing streak so frustrating.

Anyway, this game. Here’s a quick recap: the Oklahoma City Thunder has Russell Westbrook and a supporting cast that is starting to gel. The Sacramento Kings have some dude named Skal Labissiere that everyone is freaking out about. I didn’t notice him until the game was out of hand; he finished with 13 points.

The Thunder didn’t even play great. Westbrook was a bit too fast and loose – although, that’s just Westbrook – players were bobbling passes or missing great looks. Victor Oladipo struggled and Westbrook didn’t get a triple-double.

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Of course he didn’t. He was sitting on 34 heading into the game. While he won’t suit up, ol number 35 is coming to town on Monday. You really thought current number 0 would get triple-double 35 against the Kings? I was pretty sure of a Thunder win on Saturday; I was extremely sure of no triple-double for Russ.

Despite Westbrook not contributing with his usual cornucopia of assists and rebounds, the Thunder still had 23 assists as a team and out-rebounded the Kings 49-35. The starters were great for a fifth straight game, but the bench once again came up big.

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Enes Kanter had 14 points, Doug McDermott (21 points) didn’t miss, and say what you will about Semaj Christon, but the second unit runs a lot smoother with him on the floor over Norris Cole. But the real spark off the bench has been Domantas Sabonis.

Whether it’s growing confidence, a realization that maybe things came too easy being named a starter and playing with Westbrook as a rookie, rookie progression, inferior competition or something else; this new Sabonis gives the team another option on offense. And the more options, the better.

Sabonis finished with 6 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds. For a rookie off the bench who isn’t asked to do a whole lot, that’s a well-rounded stat line.

Depending on what happens tonight between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder could wake up as the fifth seed in the west.