Thunder vs Kings preview: OKC looks to regain winning ways in Sacramento

The Oklahoma City Thunder face the Sacramento Kings tonight with the goal to regain their confidence and simply just find a way to win. In the last five games, the Thunder are 2-3, and their most recent loss to the Portland TrailBlazers dropped OKC to 4-5 as early season struggles mount. Facing the 1-8 Kings tonight is a gift from the basketball gods.

Which also means that Sacramento can use a big win to boost their ego, and coming out on top at home could start a new trend for this young team. The Kings went 0-3 and failed to crack over 100 points on their three game road trip. When teams face the Kings, there’s not much you have to prepare for. The Kings are 29th in points scored, 24th in field goal percentage, 29th in total rebounds, and 28th in blocked shots.

With OKC playing as a top five defensive team, the Kings my struggle again to hit the century mark. The Kings are led by rookie De’Aaron Fox, who is the team leader in points and assists, at 12.7 points and 5 assists in 27 minutes per game.

What to Watch:

1. Free Throws. The Thunder rank 25th in free throw attempts per game (19.0). Free throw shooting is one of the main reasons why OKC is getting outscored on most nights. Last game, Portland took 13 more free throws and outscored them 22-8.

Per Yahoo Sports:

“We haven’t been getting the benefit of the doubt” - Paul George

2. De’Aaron Fox Experience. Fox is one of the league's’ best rookie point guards, and is leading his team in scoring. Watching Fox matchup against the MVP should be fun to experience. Fox likes to drive the ball at the rim, so Steven Adams and company better be ready.