As you know, this weekend is a big one for sports: Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn rematched for the UFC welterweight title last night, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played in the Australian Open overnight, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals will battle for the Super Bowl crown this evening, and the Oklahoma City Thunder visit the Sacramento King this afternoon. Ok, so maybe the Thunder/Kings game doesn't belong with those others, but it's a big game for the two teams involved.
The Thunder are coming off of a drumming by the Utah Jazz and need to prove that they can win the easy ones. In the past week and a half, they lost to the Clippers and needed overtime to defeat the Grizzlies. Neither of those outcomes would be acceptable today (ok, an overtime win would be acceptable but very disappointing).
The Kings have lost 8 straight coming into this game, 20 of their last 23, and are making a very strong case for being the worst team in the NBA. Sacramento hasn't lost 9 games in a row since 1998. Unlike OKC, this team shows little promise for future success and has a long rebuilding process ahead of it.
This game comes down to motivation, and I feel like the Thunder will have it while the Kings not so much. I see Oklahoma City cruising to a 111-103 victory.
Such a disappointing loss. It was a good thing the game was right before the Superbowl, otherwise I wouldn't have been getting blitzed and thus the loss would have been harder to take.