Playoff countdown: Kings blow big lead and big opportunity in loss to Thunder

The Kings knew they would need a series of big wins this week to secure the No. 6 seed and an automatic playoff berth, but they let a big one slip away on the road Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 40 points to help the Oklahoma City Thunder storm back for a 112-105 victory at Paycom Center. The Kings raced out to a 20-point lead in the first half, but they couldn’t maintain it after being outscored by double digits in the third and fourth quarters.

“Tough game,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “I thought in the first half, our ball movement was beautiful and I thought we got bored with it in the second half. We touched the paint and took some tough shots, got our shot blocked a couple of times, even off our offensive rebounds.

“It’s hard, when you have a formula of success, to go away from it, and then a couple of guys missed some shots — and we had wide-open shots — and we just turned them down. Turned them down and started driving into the defense. The basketball gods will make you pay if you turn down a wide-open shot in the NBA and it’s just tough to see how beautiful we played in the first half.”

Missed call?

Brown thought the officials missed a traveling violation by Gilgeous-Alexander at a critical moment late in the game. Brown also noted that Gilgeous-Alexander went to the free-throw line 20 times.

“SGA traveled,” Brown said. “Great player, but he traveled and none of the officials said they saw it. And then, oof, he gets 20 free throws. It’s going to be tough to beat them. Great player, though. I haven’t watched the film. He probably earned every single one of them, but when you have one guy getting 20 free throws, that’s a tough, tough, tough thing to overcome.”

Luguentz Dort scored 18 points for the Thunder (54-25), which is still chasing the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Chet Holmgren had 15 points and nine rebounds with two steals and two blocked shots.

De’Aaron Fox put up 33 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals for the Kings (45-34), who are still eighth in the West. The Kings are now games behind the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 6 seed, one game behind the Phoenix Suns for No. 7 spot, a half-game ahead of the No. 9 Los Angeles Lakers and one game ahead of the No. 10 Golden State Warriors.

Keon Ellis scored a career-high 26 points with seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks for Sacramento. Keegan Murray had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Domantas Sabonis finished with eight points and 13 rebounds, ending his record streak of 61 consecutive double-doubles.

The Kings will play host to the Pelicans on Thursday and the Suns on Friday in a crucial back-to-back set before concluding the regular season against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday at Golden 1 Center.

The Kings have only one path to the No. 6 seed with three games to go. They have to go 3-0 in their remaining games against the Pelicans, Suns and Blazers, and the Pelicans have to go 0-3 against the Kings, Warriors and Lakers.

The Kings will have to score more points with more efficiency to give themselves a chance, something they are struggling to do without Malik Monk (MCL) and Kevin Huerter (shoulder). They shot 34.4% from the field and 34.5% from 3-point range against the Thunder while jacking up a franchise-record 58 3-point attempts.

The Kings went 14 of 31 (.452) from long distance in the first half and 6 of 27 (.222) in the second half. The Kings went 13 of 32 (.406) on field-goal attempts in the paint while Oklahoma City went 21 of 38 (.553), finishing around the rim at a much higher rate. The Thunder shot 48.8% overall and and went 11 of 30 (.367) from 3-point range.

Gilgeous-Alexander returned to the lineup for Oklahoma City after missing six of the past seven games with a right quad contusion. Jalen Williams was cleared to return in a game-time decision after missing four games with a left ankle sprain.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who has emerged as an MVP candidate in his sixth season out of Kentucky, came in averaging 30.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.1 steals. Williams, the team’s second-leading scorer, averages 19.5 points while shooting 43.1% from 3-point range.

Oklahoma City lost three in a row before squeaking out a 121-118 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, but the Thunder was back to full strength against the Kings. That didn’t seem to matter in the early stages of the game as the Kings came out firing.

Fox made his 200^th 3-point goal of the season early in the first quarter. He became the sixth player in franchise history to reach that mark, joining Mitch Richmond, Peja Stojakovic, Buddy Hield, Huerter and Murray.

Fox and Ellis combined to go 8 of 9 from 3-point range over the first seven minutes to help the Kings jump out to an early 29-21 lead. Ellis went 4 of 4 to start the game. Fox went 4 of 5.

The Kings went cold later in the first quarter, but they still led 31-28 at the end of the opening period despite getting outshot 55% to 36%. Oklahoma City outscored Sacramento 10-2 on points in the paint, but the Kings had a 5-0 advantage in second-chance points after outrebounding the Thunder 14-6.

Fox continued to attack in the second period, making another 3-pointer and a soft floater to help Sacramento build a 44-32 lead. Fox had 19 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal when he went to the bench for a breather at the 9:19 mark in the second quarter.

The Kings went up 51-34 on two free throws by Sabonis with 5:31 to play in the half. They carried a 64-45 lead into the halftime break behind 21 points from Fox and 20 from Ellis, who eclipsed his previous career high of 19 points.

Oklahoma City outscored Sacramento 11-2 to start the second half, cutting the deficit to 10 on a pullup jumper from Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder staged a subsequent 11-0 run to get within two on a basket by Williams, prompting Brown to take a timeout. The Kings responded with a 9-0 run to push the lead back to 11, but the Thunder came back to cut the deficit to three at the end of the third quarter.

There were five ties and five lead changes in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City took an 89-87 lead on a 3-pointer by Cason Wallace with 10:43 remaining. Ellis hit a 3-pointer to put the Kings up 105-104. Holmgren made a free throw to give the Thunder a 106-105 lead.

Gilgeous-Alexander followed with a midrange jumper and four free throws in the final 35.1 seconds to close out the win.

“The free-throw attempts and the no-call on the travel are out of our control,” Brown said. “Other things that are in our control, our turnovers were really bad, and then our hesitancy to spray the basketball and then shoot it as time went on, all those things were in our control and we went away from it in the second half.”

Up next

Here’s the Kings upcoming schedule.

April 11 vs. New Orleans Pelicans

April 12 vs. Phoenix Suns

April 14 vs. Portland Trail Blazers