For the second time in five days, the OKC Thunder will play the Sacramento Kings. In fact, the team will play the Kings twice in a row and both matches will occur at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
OKC is on a six-game losing streak and hopes to make it 10 in a row to close out the season. They helped that effort with consecutive losses to the Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry had big nights in both outings scoring 34 and 49 points and in the Saturday match hit 11 of his 21 attempted 3-pointers. Through those matches, Steph scored 83 points and hit 17 triples.
It’s a reminder of what a top-level talent can do to bolster a team and push them over the top. Sam Presti will be looking to find someone of that ilk in the upcoming draft to partner with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as he builds the future core of the Thunder.
On the opposite side of the equation, the Kings became invested in playing the spoiler role and pinned their hopes on a miracle helping them move up to grab the 10th seed in the play-in tournament. They were on a four-game winning streak but the loss to the Spurs on Friday pushed them three games back of that coveted 10th seed where San Antonio resides.
The Kings will play these two matches versus OKC, another two-game series versus the Grizzlies at Memphis, and close at home versus the Jazz.
The choice for the Kings to push for the play-in was slightly confusing given they’ve moved ahead of several teams with the winning streak. It doesn’t guarantee the draft position but for a team that hasn’t been to the postseason in what will be 15 consecutive seasons, I guess they put a higher value on the potential to gain some playoff experience even if just for a few games.
Although this would typically be an opponent the Thunder would gear up for this isn’t the case as the clubs close the season. Sacramento like the Thunder is hampered by injury. Fox was supposed to miss 10 to 14 days (he’s reached 16). I guess we’ll see precisely how invested the Kings are in pushing for that 10th seed depending on whether Fox returns.
Early in the season, the Thunder essentially played a spoiler role winning games they shouldn’t. But the squad got serious about tanking after the All-Star break.
OKC Thunder versus Sacramento Kings – what you need to know
With five games remaining for most clubs in the 2020-21 regular-season schedule the Thunder and Kings appear headed to the lottery.
For the Thunder, this is only the third time in franchise history they’ll be headed straight to the NBA Draft lottery instead of postseason action. The other occasions were the inaugural year in OKC and 2014-15 when both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook missed copious games due to injury. and even then the Thunder tied the Pelicans but lost on the tiebreaker.
As for the specifics of the match, the following offers up the details…
Game specifics:
Records:
- Thunder: 21-47
- Kings: 29-38
The Venue: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA.
Tipoff: 10:00 PM ET | 9:00 PM CT
TV: Fox Sports Oklahoma | NBA League Pass
Radio: WWLS 98.1 FM OKC
Injuries:
Since the OKC Thunder played late on Saturday the NBA injury report didn’t include an update from the team. Presumably, the players out will be the same perhaps with Dort joining the group.
Reading that Ty Jerome “woke up” with a calf strain seemed like a “tanking injury” since Jerome was the leading scorer versus the Warriors in the prior match.
It’s odd then that Luguentz Dort played on Saturday since he was listed as questionable entering the game. Moreover, it wasn’t the hip strain previously cited but tendinopathy in his patellar tendon. The fact Dort is dealing with two separate injures while the team is invested in losing seems pretty risky to be letting him chance further injury.
OKC Thunder:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – plantar fasciitis will miss his 25th consecutive game and likely won’t appear again this season.
- Mike Muscala (ankle) is out
- Al Horford has been shut down for the season as a healthy scratch.
- Aleksej Pokusevski – left knee contusion has caused him to miss the last three games and is expected to be out Sunday.
- Ty Jerome as we noted above woke up with a calf injury and is expected to be out Sunday
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- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
Kings:
- Tyrese Haliburton – knee injury is done for the rest of the season.
- De’Aaron Fox remains out due to health and safety protocols
- Harrison Barnes is dealing with tightness in his left adductor and is doubtful to play
- Robert Woodard II – lower back soreness is expected out Sunday.
History:
Over the course of history, these clubs have played 239 times. The OKC Thunder hold the advantage in these regular-season games having won 148 times versus the Kings’ 91 wins.
Last year the clubs met on three occasions with the Kings winning two of the three contests. This year in a very odd scheduling effect the Kings and Thunder are playing all three matches in five days at the end of the schedule.
The final match between the clubs will occur also in Sacramento on May 11th.