Oklahoma City is on a two-game skid but opportunity awaits with the third-seeded Sacramento Kings in town for back-to-back games. The Thunder are a game out of the 10th spot in the West. That’s the cutoff to qualify for the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, and while sweeping, or splitting with, the Kings won’t do much in terms of moving OKC to a secured spot in the playoffs it’ll go a long way in keeping the Thunder from dropping further out of the picture.
Sacramento is coming off a 176-175 double overtime win over the Clippers (second highest scoring game in NBA history) but are only 3-2 in its last five games and 6-4 in the last ten. What I’m saying is that they’re not unbeatable, even without SGA in the lineup for OKC, especially at home where the Thunder are 7-3 over the last ten games at the Paycom Center.
The charity strip is going to be a key factor in these next two games against the Kings. For the Thunder, they want to keep doing what they’re doing while preventing the Kings from doing the same thing. For the season, no one gets to the free throw line more than Sacramento. They are Top 10 in the league with 25.1 attempts per game on the season while OKC is close behind at 23.2 attempts per game.
| Last 5 Games | ||
| Average Free Throws Attempted | Average Free Throws Made | |
| Kings | 29.4 | 24.8 |
| Thunder | 30.2 | 25.2 |
Over the last five games that margin changes a bit with the Thunder taking 30.2 free throw attempts per game, making 25.2, and Sacramento attempting 29.4 shots from the charity stripe, making 24.8. Here’s where OKC may struggle though. The Thunder are third in the league in placing teams at the free throw line (25.9 attempts per game) while the Kings are 24th (22.5). Still, there’s not a lot of difference there. We’re talking 3.4 attempts, but it a game where the point spread is only 3.5 points that suddenly becomes a much larger factor.
Look for OKC to take an aggressive approach at attacking the basket tonight, in an effort to earn trips to the free throw line, while also playing it smart defensively by attempting to cut off driving lanes for the Kings and forcing them to settle for mid-range to long jump shots.