The Oklahoma City Thunder and Sacramento Kings will experience their first NBA Cup game of the year Friday night, when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Russell Westbrook face off in California’s capital.
Oklahoma City opened the year with eight straight wins before suffering a 121-119 loss at Portland on Wednesday night, blowing a 22-point lead in the second game of a back-to-back.
The Kings, on the other hand, are coming off one of their best wins of the season, a 121-116 home triumph over their Northern California rivals, the Golden State Warriors, on Wednesday, despite playing without Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine and Keegan Murray.
The West Group A combatants have already met once this season, with the Thunder needing a 17-4 game-ending run to avoid an upset and halt their season-opening winning streak.
Gilgeous-Alexander saved seven of his 31 points for the late flurry in the win over the Kings, clinching the victory with a 3-pointer that extended the Oklahoma City lead to six with 16 seconds to go.
The reigning Most Valuable Player also contributed nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks in the game.
Counterpart Westbrook, who played his first 11 NBA seasons with the Thunder, actually was Gilgeous-Alexander’s teammate for six days in July 2019.
The Thunder acquired Gilgeous-Alexander on July 10 that year in a blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Clippers that sent Paul George west, then on July 16, they sent Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for a large package that included Chris Paul.
Among other things, the defensive standouts have developed into two of the top rebounding guards in the NBA. Although Gilgeous-Alexander has had a slight edge over the past two seasons, Westbrook claimed after a 16-rebound effort against the Warriors on Wednesday that he’s “the best rebounding guard ever.”
His season-best performance against Golden State included a triple-double with 23 points and 10 assists. This triple-double was the 204th of his career, the most in NBA history.
Afterward, Westbrook was more excited about passing Jason Kidd on the NBA all-time rebounds list than about adding to his triple-double record.
“I didn’t even know,” he insisted to reporters. “I need to get that game ball. Can somebody get it for me? I need that.”
The 16 rebounds raised Westbrook’s season average to 7.1. Gilgeous-Alexander is at 5.4 after grabbing nine boards against the Trail Blazers.
The nine he snatched against the Kings in the earlier meeting equaled Westbrook’s total that night.
Despite coming off their first loss of the season, the Thunder will take the Sacramento court undefeated in another regard. Friday is the club’s NBA Cup tip-off.
“This team does a really good job at learning through those things,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault assured the media about the loss at Portland. “We’ll learn from it and be a better team tomorrow when we wake up.”
