Oklahoma City, OK – It’s Super Bowl Sunday but that isn’t stopping the hoops happening at the Paycom Center with the Thunder hosting the Sacramento Kings.
The Thunder come into this game on a two game losing streak and looked to continue the trend of them not using three games in a row all season. This one was going to be tough for the Thunder as the Kings have seemed to have their number for the last few seasons because they’ve beaten the Thunder eight straight times.
If they wanted to win this game, the Thunder knew they would have to play with much better energy than they have been the last few games on both ends of the floor.
Better is what we got.
The Thunder came out of the gate with very high energy and activity on the defensive end. Speeding the Kings up and making them take a lot of tough shots. It took them a while to get their offense going while the Thunder offense looked very crisp. They moved the ball with intent and made sure they didn’t settle for any shots.
They took an early 10 point lead but that didn’t last long because the Kings outworked them on the boards with 7 offensive rebounds in the opening frame.
That wasn’t enough to stop the Thunder though because they made a couple of minor adjustments that improved their offense in a major way. The first being moving Shai Gilgeous-Alexander off of the ball a little more. It caused the Kings to lose guys because they were focusing more on Shai on the wing without the ball. The other was speeding up the pace and beating the Kings defense up the floor.
Both really paid off for the Thunder in the first half as they shot 56.8% from the field and 46.2% from three taking a 10 point lead into the half.
The Kings came out with increased energy in to start the second half but the Thunder responded in a big way with a 16-0 run after they got back to what was originally working for them and that’s really moving the ball around and being really active on the defensive end and built a 17 point lead going into the 4th.
The Kings tried everything they could to try and get back into the game and even trimmed the Thunder lead to just 6 but the Thunder were just too much with the combo of Shai and Jalen Williams who just took turns getting whatever they wanted against the Kings defenders.
The Thunder eventually pulled away and were able to come out with a 127-113 victory ending their two game losing streak and eight game losing streak against the Kings.
Here are the reasons for the win
Ball Movement
The Thunder ball movement was nothing short of excellent against the Kings. The box score doesn’t show it because it was “only” 30 assists, but it was some of their best ball movement of the season.
The change to have Shai play off of the ball a little more really helped get things going. They weren’t just standing around and waiting for Shai to make a play but instead really moving the ball around to get great looks.
There were a lot of hockey assists from guys and with the ball movement there was a lot of cutting from everyone that led to a lot of good open looks. Today was a day that felt like a day you could say guys were being “too unselfish” and that’s never a bad thing.
Defensive Intensity
Coming into the game, the Thunder knew that they’d have to come in with much better defensive energy and intensity. Especially with the Kings high powered offense.
And that they did.
Causing 18 turnovers with 30 points off of those turnovers, they were extremely active on that end of the floor. Staying in passing lanes, helping their teammates out, and not really giving up any easy looks. The Kings did go on a couple of runs and get a little hot for those stretches but the defensive intensity never changed because it was more about the Kings hitting tough shots than the Thunder giving up easy ones.
It’s really important for the Thunder to get back to consistently playing with this kind of intensity on defense with the depth and versatility of the guys on this team.
Pace
The Thunder have been playing with a little bit of a slower pace over the last few weeks and it has hindered their offense a little. Against the Kings, they made more of a concerted effort to really increase the pace.
Make or miss, the Thunder got out and ran. With the slowed down pace the last few weeks, teams have been able to get back and really pack the paint slowing down what the Thunder do best, driving. By them speeding up the pace more, they were able to beat the Kings defense up the floor and really cause an imbalance on the floor.
This is really key for the Thunder offense because teams will continuously double Shai because they just don’t want him playing one on one and they don’t want the Thunder to get into the paint. If they can beat the defense up the floor more often than not, that’ll solve a lot for them.
The Thunder were led by Shai who had another dominant night with 38 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Jalen was just as dominant with 32 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. Lu Dort was great on the defensive end and had a very solid offensive night putting up 17 points and 9 rebounds while Chet Holmgren added 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
The Thunder will look to start a winning streak when they hit the road for one last game before the Allstar break against the Orlando Magic.
