* **Flipping the script:** In an inverse from Monday's win against the Mavericks, it was Oklahoma City's opponent that led most of the night, but the Thunder never let the King's lead balloon too large, and in the crunch, came back to win.
* **Clutch calculus:** In the fourth quarter of Monday's game, SGA went 0-5 as OKC nearly melted down. Last night? Shai had seven points and an assist in the clutch, including an almost-rude dagger 3 to wipe away any hope for the Kings.
* **Paint math:** Thunder scored 52 points in the paint (vs 34 for the Kings). Even with 44 three-point attempts, OKC was still attacking.
* **Three-point problem:** OKC went 14-44 from deep. A few big threes in the final minutes (Dort, Caruso, SGA) made it feel a little bit better, but it's hard to ignore that the Thunder are struggling hard from three. OKC is a league worst 28.8% from three this season.
* **The injury carousel:** The Thunder got Alex Caruso back from concussion protocol, and Caruso was very productive–8 pts, 3 asts, 2 rbs, 2 stls, and 1 blk and was a +16.
* **Ajay's regular spotlight:** This seems to be a regular feature in the notes. Ajay Mitchell is not just a bench contributor; he is an actual weapon. Last night, another 18 points. Mitchell is now averaging 18.2 pts per game on the season.
* **Wiggins's regular spotlight:** Aaron Wiggins, who already had a career season last year, continues to show his year-over-year improvement. Mark Daigneault leaned heavy on Wiggins, who started and played 34 minutes, and the former second-round draft pick answered the call with 18 pts and 6 stls, as well as 4 huge threes.
* **What's going on with free throws:** Sacramento took 21 free throws, OKC took 10. Dallas took 9 more than OKC. Atlanta took 2 more than OKC. All while the Thunder are scoring a high percentage of points in the paint. Shai specifically has seen a precipitous drop in free throws being awarded, and I'm not seeing any difference in his play style. Shai's last 3 games, just 8 total free throws. Of those 8 free throws, 6 (yes 6!) were non-shooting fouls (either intentional fouls or off the ball fouls). This seems odd, no?
The Thunder has been one of the league's best at not giving its opponent extra possessions. Last season, the team led the league in fewest turnovers, avearging only 11.7 per game (1.5 less per game than the next best team). While, OKC remains among the league best so far this season (13.4, ranking third), last night, and the first half in particular, was, uh, not good. OKC coughed it up 9 times in the first half alone, and it felt like turnovers really prevented the Thunder from generating solid offensive momentum.
Fortunately, Sacramento only converted the Thunder's 15 points into 18 points, while, OKC converted 17 Kings' turnovers into 27 points, but carelessness with the ball put Oklahoma City in tough positions as the Kings ran out to an early lead that it protected until the final minutes.