Kings Roll Over Thunder 104-83
By: Morgan Ragan
The Sacramento Kings defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-83 Wednesday night at Sleep Train Arena.
The Thunder scored seven points in the first 11 minutes of the game and shot as low as 10 percent in the first quarter.
"This was our best defensive effort in a while now, we just have to be consistent with it from this game forward," DeMarcus Cousins said following the win.
This was the Kings fourth win in 11 games under new coach Tyrone Corbin and their first against Oklahoma City since February 2012.
"They should feel good about themselves we've been through a lot these last few weeks and to have something good happen tonight, they made it happen it didn't just happen," Kings head coach Corbin said.
Cousins received his fourth technical foul of the season after throwing his arms up in disagreement to the refs no call in the first quarter but continued to match Oklahoma's physicality for 37 minutes.
"When everyone's aggressive, when we play that way, we are a tough team," Cousins said.
He shook off the early tech and earned his 19th double-double of the season finishing with 23 points and 15 boards.
Sacramento held an opponent under 100 points for the first time since Corbin took over as head coach.
Despite Oklahoma's Serge Ibakas' eight blocks, the Kings managed to score 36 points in the paint.
Darren Collison had his ninth 20-point game of the season and a career high of five three-pointers.
Analysis:
The Kings did exactly what they were doing in the beginning of this season, they played some defense which helped get their offense going.
Not only did the Thunder's mistakes help the Kings get a much-needed victory, Sacramento showed relentless effort and a similar energy on the court Wednesday night that hasn't been present since the firing of Michael Malone.