Thunder beat Kings on Stormy Night to Start Ty Corbin Era
By Nick Avila
The Ty Corbin era got off to a dreadful start as the Sacramento Kings (11-14) were beaten by the Oklahoma City Thunder (12-13) 104-92. The game was tight with about half of the fourth period to play, but the Thunder held a tight grasp on the lead for most of the game, all but 17 seconds to be exact.
Rudy Gay once again shot at an inefficient rate, going 8/20 while dropping 22 points, and Darren Collison failed to make plays, only putting up six points and three assists in 26 minutes. The Kings out-rebounded the Thunder 48-41, but it was timely rebounds that the Kings once again failed to grab. Rebounds that led to momentum-swinging baskets.
And once again, turnovers also kept the Kings from closing in the gap at key periods.
Late game execution and defense went out the window, especially when Ben McLemore fell asleep to allow a late-game dunk off an inbounds pass and also turned the ball over the very next play to allow the Thunder to stretch their six point lead to 10.
The game began exceptionally well for the visiting Thunder, who opened with a 9-0 run, led by Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Westbrook and Durant torched the Kings for a combined 58 points, 32 from Westbrook and 26 from KD. Gay and McLemore finished the period with six and four, respectively. The Kings trailed 34-20 heading into the second.
The Kings bench came out hot to start the second, with Ramon Sessions scoring back to back buckets in the midst of an 8-2 run which led to a Thunder timeout. Sessions scored all of his 11 points the quarter. Carl Landry also added some buckets to help the Kings cut the Thunder lead to seven at the half.
The Kings got the lead down to four to start the third, but the Thunder were able to get the lead back up to 10, with Durant scoring their last seven points of the quarter. The Kings went three minutes without scoring a point in the middle of the Thunder run.
The Kings made one final push in the fourth quarter and on a Carl Landry bucket, the Kings even got their first lead of the night with over eight minutes to play at 84-83. Durant answered, and another Landry bucket followed, before Reggie Jackson‘s and-one gave the Thunder the lead for the rest of the night.
The Thunder closed the game with a 19-6 run.
The Kings play the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.