Kings vs. Thunder Preview: BLACK UP II

this should be a blowout

I agree and predict the final score to be 112 Kings 91 Thunder

Go Kings!!

This is the first of 4 games between OKC and the Kings this season, with the remaining 3 games all taking place in April. It was April 11th of last season that the two teams last played, with the 120-112 win by the Thunder completing the season sweep of the Kings.
Tyreke missed that game with another ankle injury, and PW went with an 8 man rotation choosing not to play Casspi or Darnell Jackson. Garcia, Cousins and Dalembert started in the front court and the backcourt consisted of Beno and Thornton. Greene, Thompson and Pooh were the only reserves off the bench. Durant, Ibaka and Perkins along with Sefolosha and Westbrook started for OKC. Off the bench OKC used Nick Collison, Harden, Maynor, Daequan Cook and Nazr Mohammed.

The game was close for three quarter with the Thunder taking a 87-83 lead going into the 4th quarter. OKC came out hot and went on a 14-6 run to start the final quarter and the Kings could never get closer than 5 for the remainder of the game. Cousins scored a career high 30pts with 18 coming from the FT Line. Thornton and Beno each contributed 21pts.

Dalembert and Cousin led all rebounders with 9 each. And, the Kings turned a 13-19 turnover advantage and 16-9 offensive rebounding advantage into 12 more FGA’s. Although the Kings couldn’t take advantage of the extra opportunities, shooting 41% to the Thunders 57%, giving a 7 basket advantage to the Thunder. We got no help from the 3pt arc, shooting only 4-20 with most of that coming from Garcia’s 3-5. The Thunder outscored us in the paint 50-32, led by Westbrook who was 6-8 at the rim.
The Kings will face almost the same lineup that we saw in the last game. Sefolosha hasn’t played since Jan 27th due to a sore foot; Eric Maynor tore the ACL in his right knee on Jan. 7th and will be lost for the rest of the season. Cook has moved into Sefolosha’s starting spot and Rookie 6-3 guard Reggie Jackson is getting about 11 mpg off the bench in place of Maynor.

OKC has only lost to Dallas, Portland, Washington, the Clippers and San Antonio. All except for the Portland game came on the road, but you already knew that our best and maybe only chance to beat them would be at PBP. On this current 5 game road trip, they lost at San Antonio 107-96, squeaked out a win in Portland 111-107, and overcame giving up 48 to Monta Ellis to pull out a 119-116 victory at Golden State. Now after one days rest they only have the back to back against the Kings and Jazz. Hopefully, they’ll be leg weary and looking ahead to the Jazz game.

Durant & Westbrook account for almost 50 of OKC’s 101 ppg. They’re getting less than 5 pts and 6 rebounds out of Perkins, Cook at 6 ppg is actually about a half point better than Sefolosha, and Ibaka contributes a solid 8pts and 7 rebs. Harden is the only other player in double figures at 17pts 4 rebs, while the rest are in the 3-4 ppg range. OKC is only middle of the road in three point shots (18 per game) and in 3PT% at 52%. And, basically shoots the same rate as the Kings do from all of the ranges but just at a higher FG%

Now for the good news, in 25 games, the Thunder have only faced a .500 team 10 times, so they’re beating bad teams. Now the bad news, the Kings are a bad team. Only 10 teams have scored over 100 pts against them and 5 of those lost. So, how do you beat them? Their most recent loss at the hand of the Spurs came about because SA ended up with 12 more Field Goal Attempts by controlling the Offensive boards and reducing turnovers, then they shot 12-23 from 3pt range and outshot them 84% to 60% from the FT line for a 4pt advantage there. The Clips did it by shooting 56% from the field and 13 for 25 from 3PT range, with each team holding a4 advantage in either Off Rebs or TO’s. Washington managed a 15 FGA advantage by outrebounding them 19-6 and having a TO advantage of 18-21. So, in spite of shooting 38% from the field, OKC only had a 4 basket advantage from the field, while Washington had 7 more made FT’s and 4 additional 3pt baskets. Other than that, the way to beat them is to hold Durant and Westbrook to 18 for 44 from the field like Portland did, or 18 for 41 like the Mav’s did.

I think that the Kings could win the offensive boards, but holding their turnovers to below 12 isn’t likely. Either is out shooting them from the field. Let’s hope Durant & Westbrook crumble under the pressure of playing on National Television in front of a very hostel PBP. KD meet the Fish, and fear him.

All Black Everything
Here We Stay, Now And Always
Sacramento Kings

I’m hoping to catch the second half on television, and might pop into the game thread as well.

But all of you lunatics going to the game BE LOUD and BE PROUD! If we get down early (which is apparently our primary strategy for victory these days), don’t get down, just get louder!

GO KINGS!!!