Sacramento Kings v Oklahoma City Thunder

National Basketball Association

Wednesday 23rd November 2016

Tip Off 19.30

Sacramento Kings 116 Oklahoma City Thunder 101,  attendance 17,608

Kings Starters ;

DeMarcus Cousins, 36 pts, 13 reb, 2 ast,

Rudy Gay, 17 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast

Darren Collison, 21 pts, 6 ast

Aaron Afflalo, 8 pts, 1 reb, 4 ast

Matt Barnes, 0 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 1 blk

Playing Reserves ;

Garrett Temple, Ty Lawson, Ben McLemore, Kosta Koufos

Thunder Starters ;

Victor Oladipo, 18 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk

Andre Roberson, 10 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk

Russell Westbrook, 31 pts, 11 reb, 9 ast, 2 stl

Steven Adams, 11 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk

Domantas  Sabonis, 4 pts, 3 ast, 1 stl

Playing Reserves ;

Jerami Grant, Enes Kanter, Anthony Morrow, Semaj Christon, Joffrey Lauvergne, Alex Abrines, Kyle Singler

@ Golden 1 Center

500, David J. Stern Walk

Sacramento, CA 95814

Admission $42 + $8.60 fees, Resale, Print at Home Ticket

No programme.

Sacramento Kings are bucking the trend somewhat, moving from an out of town venue,  to the brand new Golden 1 Center in the heart of downtown Sacramento. It is nice to see this in a way, but i have to say, considering it is the state capital, Sacramento is an absolutely awful place and very run down. The streets are crawling with homeless people, which certainly doesn’t help, and it could definitely  benefit from a clean up.

We had flown in to San Francisco yesterday afternoon and after collecting a hire car it was a little over 2 hours drive, once you get through the clogged up roads of the Western Bay Area, to Sacramento. Having been into the city and seen the location of the arena, it was apparent that parking was at a premium, especially if you wanted the car to still be there after the game. No problem though, as it was possible to book online, with a walk of 0.7 miles to the arena, costing $10.

Golden 1 Center was opened on 30th September 2016 and cost $558.2 million to build. Capacity here is 17,608 and despite this being a ‘sell out’ it certainly wasn’t as there were loads of empty seats.

As for the game, something of a surprise home win. Thunder are finding it tough going to adapt to life without Kevin Durant, although Russell Westbrook is dragging them along single handedly and if he could only get some help then another shot at the play offs should easily be achieved. Kings could also make the play offs, especially if DeMarcus Cousins can turn in these sort of performances on a regular basis.