Thunder Gameday: Second Night of Back-to-Back in Sacramento

In the final game of a road trip, the OKC Thunder will be in Sacramento to take on the Kings.

On the second night of a road back-to-back, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be in Sacramento to take on the Kings. Although the Thunder have a worse record than the Kings this season, they’ve won as many games this week than Sacramento has in its last ten contests.

A struggling team, could a trade deadline shakeup be on the horizon for the Kings?

ODDS: 

The Thunder enter the day as 6.5-point underdogs to the Kings, and the total over/under is 217.5 points.

KEYS TO THE GAME: 

Although the Kings haven’t been great this season, they’re only three games below .500 at home this season. As such, this won’t be an easy game for Oklahoma City.

Sacramento is a team that really thrives at getting to the free throw line. On the season, the Kings' 22.2 attempts per game is fifth in the NBA.

The Thunder will need to play disciplined defense to ensure the Kings don’t get easy points at the line. OKC has been great this season on that end of the floor, becoming nearly a top-ten team on defense thus far.

On the flip side, the Kings have the second-worst defense in the entire NBA. It will be interesting to see if the Thunder can exploit that, as they’ve currently got the league’s worst offense.

In the absence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Lu Dort will need to continue shining to fill the void he leaves on offense.

RECORDS: 

Oklahoma City Thunder (17-34) vs. Sacramento Kings (19-35)

WHEN: 

Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 9:00 PM CT

LOCATION: 

Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA

TV/RADIO: 

Bally Sports Oklahoma, NBA League Pass, 98.1 FM The Sports Animal

FINAL WORD: 

Following this game, OKC will only have six more contests before the NBA All-Star break. Giddey will be representing the Thunder in Cleveland in the Rising Stars event.


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Nick Crain
NICK CRAIN

Nick has spent the last four seasons covering the Oklahoma City Thunder and has grown quickly in the media since starting. He’s continued to produce Thunder content through writing for Forbes.com and podcasting with The Uncontested Podcast, as well as branching out to cover the NBA as a whole for SLAM Online.