It was another late-game loss for Oklahoma City against the Kings on Wednesday night.
The Thunder had what looked to be a comfortable 11-point lead against Sacramento heading into the fourth quarter before the Kings stormed back to stun OKC with a Brogdan Bogdanovic 3-pointer with 13.4 seconds left to play.
The 94-93 victory marked the second time in three days that the Kings hit a late-game three to get the win.
While Oklahoma City has struggled much of the season in the third quarter (and on Wednesday night they were outscored in the third, 31-24), it was a fourth-quarter drought that made the difference.
Danilo Gallinari hit a 3-pointer with 7:14 left in the game to give OKC an 86-75 lead. The Thunder didn’t score again until the 2:37 mark when Abdel Nader hit a three to tie the game at 89.
Chris Paul missed a potential game-winning shot from the elbow as time expired.
The nearly five-minute drought is part of the reason that Billy Donovan told reporters, including ESPN, after the game that he thought his team had opportunities in the final frame but didn’t do enough to close things out as they had in their recent victories.
“We had some opportunities in the fourth to have better possessions offensively,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “The possessions we had weren’t good enough. They made some shots that I thought we defended really well, but we didn’t close the game as well as we had some other games.”
Oklahoma City was balanced in their scoring on Wednesday night. Six players were in double figures, led by Dennis Schröder with 17.
Abdel Nader, who got the start against Sacramento, scored 15, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari each had 14, Steven Adams added 12, while Nerlens Noel chipped in 11.
The loss snapped Oklahoma City’s three-game winning streak.
The Thunder have a couple of days to rest. They’re off until Saturday when they wrap up their road trip with a game against the Nuggets.
Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT in Denver.
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