Tip-Off: 9 PM CT

Location: Sleep Train Arena (Sacramento, CA)

Television: FSOK

Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal

Twitter: Follow @TheThunderGuys for live-tweets during the game

 

At 4-5, the Oklahoma City Thunder are not really anywhere near where they want to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to panic. Despite being under .500 for the third time already this season, the Thunder’s five losses have come by an average of 3.8 points per contest.

Tonight, the Thunder take on the Kings, one of the league’s worst teams, in Sacramento. Oklahoma City’s offense has sputtered throughout its first nine games, so tonight will be a good opportunity to work on some of those kinks and to continue to work on chemistry.

Projected Starters

Thunder

• PG: Russell Westbrook
• SG: Andre Roberson
• SF: Paul George
• PF: Carmelo Anthony
• C: Steven Adams

Kings

• PG: De’Aaron Fox
• SG: Garrett Temple
• SF: Bogdan Bogdanovic
• PF: Zach Randolph
• C: Willie Cauley-Stein

Injuries

Thunder

• None

Kings

• Harry Giles (bi-lateral knee rehabilitation) is out.

Head-to-Head

• In nine seasons in Oklahoma City, the Thunder is 26-7 against the Kings (15-1 at home, 11-6 away).
• Oklahoma City won two of the three matchups with Sacramento last season.
• In nine seasons in Oklahoma City, the Thunder has won the season series against the Kings eight times and tied once.
• Russell Westbrook knocked down a career-high 20 free throws against the Kings in Sacramento on February 1, 2009. According to Basketball-Reference.com, only two other players in modern NBA history hit at least 20 free throws in a single game in their rookie year: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (20) and Rick Barry (21).
• Alex Abrines made a career-high four free throws on a career-high five free throw attempts against the Kings last season on January 15, 2017 in Sacramento.
• Kings center Georgios Papagiannis scored a career-high 14 points against the Thunder last season on March 18, 2017 in Oklahoma City. He also recorded a career-high 11 rebounds

Game Notes

• Oklahoma City is 2-3 on the road. Sacramento is 0-3 at home.
• The Thunder has lost two games in a row, and the Kings have lost seven games in a row.
• Russell Westbrook has four triple-doubles so far this season. The Thunder are 4-0 when he gets one and 0-5 when he does not.
• The Thunder has one of the best defenses in the league, ranking 1st in steals per game (10.0) and opponent turnovers per game (18.6), 2nd in defensive rating (97.6) and opponent points per game (97.0), and 5th in blocks per game (6.0) and points off turnovers per game (19.9).
• The Kings have one of the worst offenses in the league, ranking 29th in points per game (93.8) and offensive rating (95.7), 23rd in field goal percentage (43.7%), 28th in assists per game (19.3).

Article written by Zack Low. Follow @TheThunderGuys on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.