OKC Thunder Continues to Respond Well After Losses

One team missed two of its three best players and two rotation players while the other was fully healthy.

The Oklahoma City Thunder still improved to an 8-1 record after losses this season by demolishing the Sacramento Kings 144-110 Saturday night. Aaron Wiggins, who made his 14th start of the year stepping in for All-Star wing Jalen Williams, racked up a career-high 41 points on 30 shots and a career-high 14 rebounds.

"Obviously a great night, awesome feeling," Wiggins said. "The energy from our team from the jump — I thought we did a really good job just coming out of the gate with force and being locked in on our game plan."

Multiple Thunder players stepped up next to Wiggins. Kenrich Williams finished with 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 11 rebounds in his season-high 22 minutes. Isaiah Hartenstein tallied 15 rebounds, eight made shots and six assists. Luguentz Dort drained six triples, grabbed four offensive rebounds and blocked two shots. Even Alex Ducas made both 3-point attempts during garbage time.

Oklahoma City's offensive explosion earned the headlines, though blowout victories are only possible with good results on both ends. Every Kings starter scored 14 or more points, led by De'Aaron Fox's 20 on 8-for-16 shooting — but Sacramento shot 40-for-100 overall and 11-for-44 from downtown. The Kings also grabbed two fewer offensive rebounds than their season average even with 60 opportunities.

"I thought the defense was pretty impressive for most of the game," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. "We had some lapses, but Cason went out. Caruso was out. (Jalen Williams) was out. Those are three really impactful point-of-attack defenders for us. We really needed a lot of people to step up with the threats (the Kings) have all over the floor."

The 34-point margin underscores an unmistakable trend: Oklahoma City has accumulated a +151 point differential across those nine outings, which translates to +16.8 per game. This includes a 19-point November victory against the current No. 2 seed Houston Rockets and a 25-point win over the No. 3 New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 10.

The Thunder's only back-to-back loss came against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 19, 2024. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams recorded 59 combined points but the bench scored 15 points on 6-for-24 shooting. Seven Spurs reached double-digit points and the team shot 19-for-46 on 3-pointers despite Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan being inactive.

Oklahoma City plays the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow at 7 p.m. CST. It will be the first official matchup between the two teams this season and the second of a four-game Thunder homestand.

Want to join the discussion? Like Thunder on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.