Sacramento Kings 116 — OKC Thunder 104
With Kevin Durant’s big right toe healthy you’d have thought this would be another Thunder win over the usually self-destructive Sacramento Kings. But instead, with Durant and his big right toe sidelined on this Big Monday Night, it became a night of basketball history of sorts when the Kings beat the Thunder 116-104 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Before tonight, the Sacramento Kings were 0-14 in games played in Oklahoma City. Make that 1-14 now as these Kings won their first ever against this franchise since the move from Seattle.
Speaking of Seattle, former Sonics coach George Karl notched the 1,156th win in his NBA coaching career which now places him in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time list. Good for him.
The third piece of history occurred in Lawrence, Kansas where Kansas and OU played a No. 1 versus No. 2 epic triple overtime game which in all candor put the Thunder game on the back shelf as far as basketball passion and drama.
Let’s be clear, without Kevin Durant—the OKC Thunder are not a top twelve team in the NBA and are perhaps at best a periphery playoff team which would be similar to Utah only with Russell Westbrook. Without Durant this team doesn’t know what to do–and that includes Russell Westbrook at times as well.
They look around. They don’t play defense. They hesitate taking open shots. But most of all —they just look lost.
OKC started out fine in this game with Anthony Morrow subbing for Durant. In fact–OKC led 31-14 at one point before the bench unit came onto the floor. So much for the feel good glow about OKC’s bench play of late. OKC’s bench was in a word horrific on this night being outscored 51-25 in the game.
In thirty-five minutes of combined play — this OKC bench duo went 2-12 from the field and scored eight points total. If this were Jeopardy on television—the correct question would be …Who are Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter?
There’s no way you can sugarcoat it–both Kanter and Waiters were wretched topped with a touch of abysmal which is exactly what OKC couldn’t live with on a night without Kevin Durant and all ten of his toes.
Sadly—both Serge Ibaka and Anthony Morrow had season high scoring nights with 25 and 20 respectively….which in essence went wasted.
Steven Adams was pretty good scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. I liked the way Adams played actually and don’t have anything snarky to say about his hair.
Cam Payne went scoreless the first half, but came back in the fourth period to score all 11 points of his points as Donovan tried a lineup using both Westbrook and Payne, but to no avail as Russell Westbrook kept shooting when he shouldn’t have on a 6-23 shooting night. It was one of those nights where you just wished Westbrook would stop shooting threes altogether as he went 2-9 from beyond the arc.
Five different Kings scored in double figures…. Demarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo, Rudy Gay, Marco Bellinelli, and Darren Collison.
DeMarcus Cousins is my No. 1 Star with 33 points and 19 rebounds.
With the win–the Kings improve to 14-20, and notch their fifth win of the season against a Western Conference team.
OKC’s win streak ends at four and the Thunder drop to 24-11. Good thing for OKC The UnderGround Power Poll came out yesterday.
In closing, on a night when it appeared OKC would coast and continue heading in the right direction under Billy Donovan–this Thunder team collectively took two steps backward and saw what they are without Kevin Durant.
Memphis Grizzlies in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Vegas spread on hold pending a health update on a big right toe.
Mike Jackson
Reading of recap in delay pending finish in Lawrence . . . and sleep. 🙂