* It wasn't always pretty, it wasn't dominant, but the Thunder stays perfect at home and move to 15-1 on the season after beating the Kings by 14.
* The Oklahoma City Thunder is the only team in the league to have a perfect record at home. The team also has the best road record in the NBA at 8-1.
* Last night was Native American Heritage Night and the debut of this year's city edition jerseys and court. I absolutely loved the jerseys and court. If the Thunder do a rebrand, they already have a great start...
* Neither team shot the ball well. OKC was 46.6% from the field, and a paltry 26.3% from deep, while Sacramento was 44.2% from the field and 28.6% from three.
* If you look at the stats, it was actually a very close, competitive game. Points in the paint, OKC had just a 4-point advantage. Points off turnovers, again just a 4-point advantage for the home team. Fast break point, this one went to the Kings by +8. Turnovers, 18 for the Kings, 16 for the Thunder. The Kings even had more offensive rebounds than Oklahoma City.
* And yet, another double-digit win, mainly because the Thunder made just a few more shots and shot better from the free-throw line.
* Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player on the court. Shocker. SGA dropped 33 while adding 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
* Chet Holmgren continued his offensive tear, adding 21 on 10-of-15 shooting. Holmgren has been looking for his shot, and he's becoming a 20+ point machine.
* The Kings didn't go down without a fight. Any time the Thunder started to build a lead and some momentum, the Kings would just chip away at the lead to stay within striking distance. Sacramento didn't really make any big runs, but they never let a lead get too big.
* Now, every time the Kings crawled back, OKC answered with a run. The Thunder had 3 runs of 7+ points without allowing the Kings to score a bucket, while also having 5 separate runs where they outscored the Kings by 10+. No run more emphatic than a 9-0 blitz in the fourth quarter (thanks to Lu Dort) that pushed the game finally out of reach.
* Russ, who was scorching against OKC from three, did not have a particularly impactful game offensively. Westbrook scored just 7 points and went 1-4 from three. He did have 3 steals, and on a couple of them, I don't think the Thunder realized how athletic the Brodie is.
* SGA, though, played in the fourth quarter. On the [**Daily Thunder Podcast this week**](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6pbLJW4VbYGYiXOn42XC6w?si=CwV_LO3LRSKPhmtrP4gppg&ref=dailythunder.com), we had a discussion whether Shai would play any fourth quarters this week. No one thought a home game against the Kings would be a game Shai would be needed in.
* Really, though, Lu Dort was the closer in this one. Dort finished 4-of-6 from three, but he made multiple big 3s in the fourth.
* OKC's on a 76.9-win pace.
As I mentioned above, this was actually a very close game. The likely difference? Blocks. The Kings were attacking the paint, which led to them being one the rare teams to keep close in the "points in the paint."
While the Kings got some points inside, they kept running into one of the league's elite shot blockers–Holmgren–as well as Isaiah Hartenstein. Together, the duo combined for 5 swats.
In a game where the Thunder made just 2 more shots than the Kings, those 10 rejections made the difference to keep the Thunder rolling and atop the conference and league standings.