Two teams as interested in scoreboard-watching as they are in facing each other duel Tuesday night when the Sacramento Kings visit the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Both the Kings (45-33) and Thunder (53-25) need to win but also get help to move up the Western Conference standings over the final six days of the regular season.
Currently in play-in position as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, Sacramento will take the court Tuesday one game behind the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans, who are tied for sixth. The Suns host the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, while the Pelicans visit the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Kings will be playing their final road game of the regular season. They will get a chance to go head-to-head with both the Pelicans (on Thursday) and Suns (on Friday) when they finish with three straight at home.
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, is in a nearly identical situation, only farther up the standings. The Thunder currently sit third in the West, one game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.
Both of the rivals for the top spot in the West also play Tuesday, with the Timberwolves hosting the Washington Wizards while the Nuggets visit the Utah Jazz.
Oklahoma City, which tips off a regular-season-ending, four-game homestand Tuesday, has no remaining games against Minnesota or Denver.
The home team has won all three Kings-Thunder meetings this season, with Sacramento prevailing 105-98 and 128-123 at home during the 2023 portion of the schedule, before Oklahoma City ran off with a 127-113 victory in February.
The matchup potentially features two players seeking All-NBA recognition.
Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis, who began his career as a member of the Thunder after a draft-night trade from the Orlando Magic, has padded his NBA lead in triple-doubles with a pair against Oklahoma City. They sandwiched an 18-point, 16-rebound, seven-assist outing, giving him averages of 18.7 points, 13.3 rebounds and 11.3 assists in the three head-to-heads.
Sabonis narrowly missed a 27th triple-double when he collected 18 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists in Sunday’s 107-77 road shellacking of the Brooklyn Nets. The Kings had opened their four-game trip with losses at New York and Boston.
The big man did record a 61st consecutive double-double, a rare achievement that caught the attention of Kings coach Mike Brown.
“Shout-out to Domas. What a job,” Brown gushed. “What a phenomenal, phenomenal year he’s having. He should be talked about for first-, second-, third(-team) All-NBA. And he should be in the MVP discussions with the way that he’s playing.”
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to be among the competition for All-NBA spots. He’s burned the Kings for 38.0 points per game in the earlier meetings, while also averaging 5.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists.
The All-Star guard, however, has missed six of the Thunder’s last seven games with a bruised right quad. He remains questionable this week, something Chet Holmgren says he and his teammates will have to deal with.
“That’s the NBA,” he observed. “That’s not an excuse; that’s how it goes. Other teams go through; we go through it. This is just the point in the season when we’re going through it.”
–Field Level Media
