The skid continued for the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday after a big second-half comeback came up short against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points to lead the Thunder to a 121-105 victory before a sellout crowd of 16,060 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

Chet Holmgren had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder (60-12), which has the best record in the NBA. Alex Caruso came off the bench to score 15 points.

Keegan Murray scored a season-high 28 points for the Kings (35-37), who have lost four in a row and eight of their last 10. Zach LaVine had 18 points and seven assists. Domantas Sabonis was held to eight points on 3-of-12 shooting with 12 rebounds and eight assists.

The Kings stormed back to get within six in the third quarter after trailing by as many as 24, but they couldn’t maintain that momentum.

“We turned it around in the third quarter, but at that point it was too late,” Murray said.

Kings guard Keon Ellis said Sacramento’s first-half performance was “definitely not great.”

“I think we all know that, and I think we know we have to put ourselves in better situations because we’ve shown we’re a team that can compete and we can fight,” Ellis said. “I just think we have to put ourselves in situations to give ourselves a chance.”

The Kings will return to action Thursday when they play the Portland Trail Blazers to conclude a seven-game homestand.

Halftime report

Sacramento forced seven turnovers in the first period and only trailed 16-15 after 8:44, but Oklahoma City closed out the quarter with a 15-6 run to take a 31-21 lead.

The Thunder went up by 20 on a dunk by Luguentz Dort with 6:58 to play in the first half. Oklahoma City led by as many as 24 points before carrying a 64-42 lead into the halftime break.

The Thunder shot 59% from the field and 57.1% from 3-point range in the first half. The Kings shot 37.2% from the field while going 8 of 22 (.364) from beyond the arc. Oklahoma City outrebounded Sacramento 25-15 while amassing a 12-0 advantage in fastbreak points.

Second half

The Kings cut the deficit to seven after outscoring the Thunder 19-4 to start the second half. Murray made three 3-pointers to fuel a 16-0 run as Sacramento came back to cut Oklahoma City’s lead to 68-61 with 7:29 to play in the third quarter.

Murray scored 16 points in the third period, going 5 of 6 from 3-point range to help the Kings get within six late in the third. They trailed 89-81 going into the fourth. The Kings still had a chance while trailing by 10 with 9:36 remaining, but The Thunder went up by as many as 25 after staging a 12-0 run.

Up next

The Kings will face a resurgent Portland squad on Thursday.

The Blazers (32-40) won four in a row before losing to the Boston Celtics on Sunday. Their winning streak included victories over the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets.

Deni Avdija scored 31 points in the win over Memphis. He had 36 against Denver.

This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 9:57 PM.