Yes, kids, it’s the Sacramento Kings again, and this is definitely the last time we’ll have to see them this season. Promise. And if we thought we would be spared the presence of DeMarcus Cousins, who rolled up his thirteenth technical Sunday — well, that tech was rescinded, and DeMarcus did his darnedest to make DeDifference tonight, rolling up a team-high 32 points. Scott Brooks, evidently not impressed, brought out none of the Thunder starters for the fourth quarter, and the James Harden-less bench came up big, putting together a 36-24 final frame to get the better of the Kings, 118-110.

Sacramento came out shooting hot, running up 40 points in the first quarter; they cooled a bit once the Thunder defense started to gel, but still finished with a creditable 52 percent from the floor. All five starters made double figures, though the five reserves, putting in limited time (Tyler Honeycutt, says the box score, played two seconds, and you can’t get much more limited than that), contributed only seven points among them.

Meanwhile, Derek Fisher and Daequan Cook took command of the OKC bench; DC-14 got a season-high 19 points, and Fish dropped in 11, including three consecutive free throws late after being fouled on a long ball. Kevin Durant, who vanished after the third quarter, left with 32 points, enough to pad his tiny lead over Kobe Bryant for scoring champion by some infinitesimal decimal. With Russell Westbrook in something of a slump (4-13, 13 points), Thabo Sefolosha stepped up his offensive game, hitting four of six, including two treys, for 11 points. The Thunder shot 46 percent, and outrebounded Sacramento, 43-34.

Which leaves Game 66, tomorrow against the sixth-place (for the moment) Nuggets. Denver hasn’t beaten OKC all year, and there’s no good reason they should start now.

For a team that’s supposed to be terrible — Basketbawful calls them the Purple Paupers, and that’s when they’re being nice to them — the Sacramento Kings are capable of some remarkable feats. Down 15 halfway through the fourth, they reeled off seven straight points in about a minute before the Oklahoma City defense could catch its breath. Respiration did return, however, and the Kings would gain no further ground, the Thunder pulling off a 103-92 win.

Sacramento did not shoot well: they were under 40 percent most of the night, finishing just under 41. However, they did spread the scoring around: four of five starters, plus rookie Jimmer Fredette, in double figures. DeMarcus Cousins led with 18 and nine rebounds, four of them off the offensive glass. (The Thunder had only six such all night.) If anyone seemed to be underachieving, it was Travis Outlaw, who missed all six of his shots and one of two free throws, though even Outlaw had four boards. In terms of Scary Young Guys, Isaiah Thomas (12) was the dominant one early on, Tyreke Evans (16) later on.

The Thunder, however, could shoot: 53 percent from the floor, 19 of 22 from the stripe. The usual suspects got fairly typical numbers: Kevin Durant 29 (14 boards, and seven assists), James Harden 20, Russell Westbrook 18, and Serge Ibaka logged eight blocks while tossing up 12 points. (This season he’s averaging better than 3.5 blocks per game; nobody else has even two and a quarter.)

Sunday might mark a milestone of sorts: if OKC can pull off a win, they’ll have swept the Lakers, 3-0. And they’ll need to, just to stay on San Antonio’s heels. (The Spurs wasted Kobe and company 121-97 tonight.) Two home games follow, and suddenly it’s playoff time. On the question of whether it’s better to be the #2 seed, all I’m going to say is that I’m grateful for any seed in which we don’t have to play the Grizzlies in the first round. And currently, Memphis is #5, which would pit them against the #4 Clippers. Given the trouble we’ve had with both those teams, the idea of losing one of them before the second round is awfully appealing.

The Kings made a game of it for about twelve minutes — they trailed 23-21 after the first quarter — but the Thunder evidently decided that the best way to expunge the last remaining memory of that three-game losing streak was a good old-fashioned blowout, and that’s what they delivered, sending slumping Sacramento on its way, 115-89.

And they did it without James Harden, who was scratched due to a sore knee. (Will we see him tomorrow at Minnesota? I’m betting we do.) As usual, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook got the big numbers (29 and 22 points respectively), and Kendrick Perkins grabbed 11 rebounds in addition to scoring 11 points. In the absence of Harden, the bench was led by Derek Fisher (14) and Daequan Cook (13). And what with tornadoes south of the city, there was some early, um, rumbling about the end of the team’s season-long (and then some) stretch of sellouts. Didn’t happen: same old 18,203.

Sacramento, whose on-again-off-again deal for a new arena is off again, might have been slightly distracted, maybe. The wingmen, Marcus Thornton and Isaiah Thomas, led the scorers — Thomas had a highly-respectable 21 — but Tyreke Evans, who averages around 17, managed only two in a meager 14 minutes. Perennial pest DeMarcus Cousins, though, scored nine and hauled in 12 boards. The Kings shot a sub-blah 39 percent and were outrebounded 58-41.

Amazingly, with seven games left, two are against the Kings. They may not be pushovers next time. But first, the Timberwolves, who are much depleted these days: Rubio’s been out for weeks, Luke Ridnour is sidelined, and Kevin Love suffered an apparent concussion Wednesday at the hands — er, elbow — of Denver’s JaVale McGee. Still, Rick Adelman can beat you with half a dozen nuns and a professional Richard Simmons impersonator, so Scott Brooks will give his usual “Don’t underestimate these guys” speech before tipoff.

The building is called Power Balance Pavilion, and the balance of power was decidedly with the Kings: what they presumably lacked in clout, they made up for in volume and in execution. Sacramento, for instance, got off 99 shots; you have to figure that even 40 percent of that — which they hit — would produce some serious scoring. The eight-point Thunder lead from the middle of the fourth quarter evaporated in four minutes flat, and the Kings ran them out of the place, 106-101.

Maybe it was the crowd. In the Good Old Days, the old Arco Arena sold out just about every night, and legend has it that you could hear the noise on the far side of Stockton. The Kings were lightly regarded this year: this was the only national TV appearance for which they were scheduled, and attendance was not so great earlier in the season. Did Oklahoma City misunderestimate the one-time Purple Paupers? The Kings grabbed twenty-three Thunder turnovers, had a 46-40 advantage on the glass (17-12 offensive).

Telltale statistic: the Thunder blocked 17 shots — Serge Ibaka had 10 before fouling out — and yet Sacramento rolled up 60 points in the paint. Against something like that, 33 points from Russell Westbrook and 27 from Kevin Durant (which comes to, by coincidence, 60) doesn’t help.

Oh, you wanted to know about Tyreke the Freke? Evans was speedy as ever, thank you very much, and good for 22 points. The only double-double on either side was garnered by Jason Thompson, who had 11 points and 10 boards. And in the Ferocious Big competition, DeMarcus Cousins had it all over Kendrick Perkins, who played only 19 minutes.

So the Thunder have to beat the Jazz Friday night to come back 3-2 from this road trip. We shall see.

If you thought, not unreasonably, that Seattle’s current position on the NBA is “Screw ‘em,” you might want to take the following under advisement:

A wealthy San Francisco hedge-fund manager and officials in the Seattle mayor’s office have been working behind the scenes for eight months to bring an NBA team back to the city as early as next fall and build a new arena, according to emails and documents that reveal a far more concerted effort than previously known.

The documents, released Friday to The Seattle Times under a public-disclosure request, also provide the first glimpse of how the largely unknown hedge-fund manager, 44-year-old Seattle native Christopher Hansen, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena south of Safeco Field.

But which team? The ownership most likely to sell would be presumably dealing with both arena issues and an indifferent (or worse) record. Which means — yes, you guessed it:

Although the documents don’t mention how Seattle would obtain a team, they show the city has been following developments in Sacramento, which is under a March 1 deadline to come up with a viable proposal to build an arena for the Sacramento Kings. In September, Hirsh emailed a copy of an Associated Press story to Raup that outlined the Sacramento situation.

If Sacramento fails, the Kings could be playing in Seattle next fall if the city and Hansen reach an agreement, according to a Seattle City Hall source who has been briefed on the matter.

Second choice might be the league-owned New Orleans Hornets, but David Stern has always said he’s looking for an owner who would keep them in the Big Easy.

The Sacramento Kings, next year, will be called — the Sacramento Kings:

The Sacramento Kings will remain in town for at least one more season to give Mayor Kevin Johnson a chance to follow through on his promise of a new arena.

The Kings had been considering a move to Anaheim, Calif., after several failed efforts to build a new arena in Sacramento, but they decided to give Johnson one more shot.

“The mayor of Sacramento has told the NBA relocation committee that he will have a plan for a new arena within a year,” co-owner Joe Maloof said Monday. “If not, the team will be relocated to another city.”

State government has no money, but announced they’d step up to help:

Four California lawmakers, including the leader of the state Senate, sent a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern last week pledging to work with local leaders over the next year to try to build a sports and performing arts complex to replace the Kings’ outdated arena.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, said he would use his clout to make sure his district gets its share of state bond money that could go to build the complex.

Personally, I think Lakers owner Jerry Buss ought to kick in a few million: the longer he can keep the Kings from moving to Anaheim, the more his cable-TV contract with Time Warner will be worth.

If the Kings had been getting crowds like this all year, nobody would have mentioned the dreaded word “Anaheim.” And nobody, lately, seems to be speaking the dreaded word “Tyreke”; Sacramento’s hummingbird of a point guard is still ailing, but Beno Udrih and Marcus Thornton handled the wings nicely in his absence. And DeMarcus Cousins, when he wasn’t having a hissy fit — he drew a technical for one of them — was getting to the line on a regular basis, and by “regular” we mean he hit 18 of 21. (Radio guy Matt Pinto will swear that he was getting help by three guys with whistles.) Cousins wound up with 30 points, as many as Russell Westbrook and almost as many as Kevin Durant, but the Kings, who had a six-point lead at the half, weren’t able to sustain it, and the Thunder posted their 25th road win, 120-112.

Still, nobody will accuse these Kings of rolling over and dying. Offsetting their indifferent 41-percent shooting was a mass of free throws: 38 of 42. (The Thunder, which normally dominate at the stripe, went 32-37.) But OKC shot 57 percent, and somehow managed to survive giving up 18 turnovers. (Rebounds were dead even at 40 apiece, but the Kings grabbed more off the offensive glass.)

The season ends back at home, with the Milwaukee Bucks perhaps in the headlights. We can think about the playoffs later.

After going 1-1 on the Left Coast over the weekend, the Thunder were anxious to go into the All-Star break with a win, and they got their first break well before tipoff: Sacramento überguard Tyreke Evans turned up with plantar fasciitis, poor fellow, and the Kings, who didn’t play that badly otherwise, were blown out of Oklahoma City’s Large Indoor Downtown Roundabout to the tune of 126-96.

Your Telltale Statistics: DeMarcus Cousins, fined by the Kings yesterday for an altercation after Saturday night’s game with the Thunder, was the leading scorer for Sacramento with 21; Daequan Cook, epoxied to the OKC bench for much of the season, came up with 20 points to lead the Thunder.

Oh, and this: it was OKC 100, Sacramento 75, after the third quarter. With an abundance of garbage time, Serge Ibaka actually got more minutes than anyone else in home whites, playing 28:12, and all twelve active players put in at least some time. This won’t help Kevin Durant’s average — he finished with 17 — but I suspect he’s happier with the win. And in a mere 25 minutes, Russell Westbrook came up with a skimpy but legitimate double-double: 10 points, 11 assists. The on-again off-again Jeff Green was on again, with 16 points on 7-9 shooting. OKC shot an even 50 percent, and were 3-17 from beyond the arc, except for Cook, who hit five of seven.

The Kings, to their credit, never acted like it was over until the fourth quarter, when the benches were emptied. Cousins reeled in 13 boards to lead everyone. Beno Udrih and Pooh Jeter, splitting duty at the point, each scored in double figures. Apart from a flurry of missed treys — they hit only two of 11 — there really wasn’t much they did wrong; they just weren’t able to do enough against a Thunder defense which actually showed up in the first quarter for once.

And so OKC goes into the break at 35-19. The schedule gets hairy rather quickly afterwards: next Tuesday at home against the Clippers, Wednesday at San Antonio, Friday at Orlando, then back home Sunday against the other L.A. team.

The Kings dominated this one early, which should be no surprise to anyone who’s paid any attention to the Thunder lately: they’ve had some seriously weak first-quarter defense of late. Eric Maynor took care of that with a half-court shot to close out the quarter, putting OKC up 27-24; they would not trail again, despite some anxious moments, and they got the win in Sacramento, 99-97.

What was most remarkable about this game was not Maynor’s 50-footer, nifty as it was, but the sheer number of technicals handed out: Maynor got one, Serge Ibaka got another, Russell Westbrook got yet another. (Didn’t seem to be a plot by the officials, since Tyreke Evans also got one.) Evans was making his presence known early on, and he put in more minutes (46) than anyone else. He got two of three free throws with 39 seconds left to pull the Kings within four, and when the Thunder couldn’t come back with a score, Evans delivered another layup. Kevin Durant earned a trip to the foul line with 5.9 left, but sent up a pair of bricks. Evans fired a trey for the win, which didn’t land, Omar Casspi tried to put it back, but that was the end of it.

Six Kings hit double figures, led by Evans with 30; DeMarcus Cousins got the only double-double of the night, with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Sacramento got most of the rebounds (49-36), most of the assists (18-12), and that late 12-2 run; had this game gone to overtime, I suspect the Kings would have won it handily.

Durant, in spite of those chunks of masonry — he missed five of 13 from the line — still managed to accumulate 35 points; Westbrook came up with 22 before disappearing late, Maynor running the point towards the end. (As of this writing, no one has explained why.) If you buy this plus/minus stuff, consider this: all the Thunder starters finished minus, all the bench players finished plus. James Harden had 11 points and five steals; Maynor finished with nine points. The Uncle Jeff factor: Green had eight points and four boards, which might qualify as “meh.”

It’s tomorrow night at Golden State, then back home to play these same Kings on Tuesday. It’s not going to be any easier, I suspect.

Sports guys have their superstitions: former Astros infielder Craig Biggio, for instance, never washed his batting helmet until the season was over.

George Hill of the San Antonio Spurs wears something called a “balance bracelet,” and he swears by it. The rest of the team? Not so much:

“Have you heard of a placebo?” Manu [Ginobili] asked.

Hill didn’t follow.

“It’s a Spanish word,” Richard Jefferson chimed in, jokingly.

This might not matter so much, except that the manufacturer, a firm called Power Balance, is reported to be the high bidder for the naming rights to the (soon to be) former Arco Arena in Sacramento, so we may be hearing more about these little confidence-builders.

In the first half, the question was “Gawd, what are we going to do about Tyreke Evans?” He’d rolled up 16 points already, and the Thunder was a long way from putting away the Kings. Twenty-four minutes later, no one was asking: Evans had been effectively bottled up in the second half, finishing with 22, and Oklahoma City recorded its fifth consecutive victory, thrashing Sacramento 102-87.

The Kings showed strength on the glass, grabbing 40 rebounds — DeMarcus Cousins got 15 of them before fouling out late — but they had little success forcing turnovers, shooting treys (two of 11), or collecting freebies (15-23 from the stripe). Beno Udrih was their marksman, scoring 19 on 9-12 shooting; factor Udrih out, though, and you’re looking at 26-70, which is barely 37 percent.

The Thunder shot a little better — 48.1 percent — but they had little success shooting treys (three of 15) or collecting freebies (21 of 32 from the stripe). The usual go-to guys were gone to, with Kevin Durant rattling down 24 despite missing four free throws, Russell Westbrook doing his thing to the tune of 21, and Serge Ibaka collecting another double-double. Nick Collison was his usual fearsome self. But attention must be paid to the Quiet Man: Jeff Green’s line shows only 11 points, but it also shows +21, by far the best of anyone on the court.

Mullens Report: Byron put up one shot, which he missed, and two free throws, one of which he got, in the final minute and 48 seconds.

The home stand ends Sunday, against the Suns; there’s a back-to-back on the road, Tuesday at Charlotte and Wednesday at New York, before the Nuggets drop in for a rare Saturday-night game at the Just Try To Drive Here Arena.

You should not make Russell Westbrook bleed.

A couple of minutes into the second half, Westbrook, who hadn’t had a particularly good night up to that point, retreated to the locker room, bleeding from one eye after a swipe by the Kings’ Carl Landry. He was gone maybe nine game minutes, and came back with a bumpy countenance and a chip on his shoulder. He finished with 21 points and eight boards as the Thunder finished off Sacramento, 108-102.

And this despite a considerable offensive display by the Kings, who shot 50.6 percent from the floor, knocking down five of nine treys. But OKC owned the boards, 45-33, including 16 off the offensive glass, and when super rookie Tyreke Evans drew two fouls in the last two minutes and connected on only one of four free throws, it was pretty much all over.

Not that Evans was a slouch or anything: he had 24 points. Landry had 20 more, and the Sacramento bench rose for 36. It might have helped their cause if some actual fans had shown up: attendance was reported at a hair over 12,000. I blame Oscar.

Your Thunder Big Three were fairly large, Kevin Durant managing 27 and Jeff Green adding 12. Thabo Sefolosha, who hadn’t been hitting any shots of late, came up with 10 points; Nenad Krstić had only five points but 10 rebounds. Both James Harden and Serge Ibaka came up with double digits off the bench. OKC shot 47.7 percent, but just four of 14 from downtown.

This puts the Thunder at 38-24 with 20 games left, none against the Kings, against whom they finish the season 3-1. A home stand begins Wednesday against the Hornets; the Nets will arrive Friday, and the Jazz on Sunday.

Hollinger’s current Playoff Odds land OKC at sixth with a 50-32 record. Dallas and Utah, says Hollinger, are set to tie for second, but the Mavs get the tiebreaker, so the Thunder end up playing the Jazz. (The Nuggets fall to fourth and take on fifth-place Phoenix.) I can believe we’ll go 12-8 the rest of the way — but we have 12 games left against playoff-bound teams, and only eight against the members of the Lottery League. By no means is any of this going to be easy.

The Kings must be wondering how many shots they have to make to win a game. Sacramento shot a highly-creditable 53.9 percent, and Rookie of the Year candidate Tyreke Evans knocked down 27 points, but the Thunder got stops late and squeezed out a 113-107 win.

If you read that and thought “Does this mean they didn’t get stops early?” the answer is Yes: the Kings didn’t exactly score at will, but they were efficient, making 41 of 76 from the floor (including five of 16 treys) and 20 of 24 from the stripe. What Sacramento didn’t do was rebound: they picked up only 32, against 43 by OKC.

The Thunder hit 40 of 80, an even 50 percent; they were in the 60s in the second quarter. Two of the Big Three made it to double-double land: Kevin Durant had 39 points and 10 rebounds, and Russell Westbrook came up with 30 points and 13 assists. If your defense isn’t working so well, you might as well have offense, right?

This was the third game of the season series, which OKC now leads 2-1. The fourth will be Sunday at Arco Arena. In between, the Thunder will tangle with the Nuggets (tomorrow) and the Clippers (Friday); the next game at the Ford is a week from Wednesday, against the Hornets.

Addendum: Inspired snark from Royce at Daily Thunder: “Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha combined for 69 of OKC’s 113 total points tonight. Durant and Westbrook had 69 of those.”

And no, I don’t mean the KING broadcast stations. Frank Hughes of SI.com:

I posed the hypothetical question to a high-ranking NBA official about whether the Kings could move their operations to Seattle, the league’s next-best market, if they are unsuccessful in their pursuit of a new arena — which appears as if it will be the case. Seattle has a ready-made arena sitting in town going virtually unused, and it is in better shape than Arco Arena.

The official said, however, that unless KeyArena is redone, it would not make sense for the Kings to move because they would not make enough money to recoup their relocation fee.

Here’s a thought: For the betterment of a league that clearly is having financial issues, why not waive the relocation fee? The only place that money is going is into the owners’ pockets, a bribe, if you will, that paves the way for a smooth transition. There is nothing that says it can’t be waived so that owners can be more financially solvent someplace else.

Not that the Maloof brothers are (1) insolvent or (2) threatening to move the Kings out of Sacramento. At the moment, anyway.

And whether Seattle is in any mood to grant any concessions to any of those wicked, evil NBA owners is another matter entirely.

The Kings have their revenge. In the friendly confines of Arco Arena, the Kings put together a balanced, Kevin Martin-less attack — all the starters scored in double figures — to edge the Thunder, 101-98.

Jason Thompson did the most to pester the visitors, recording 21 points and 14 rebounds. Rookie Tyreke Evans earned his keep and then some, with 20 points, 8 boards and 8 assists. The Kings shot an indifferent 44.7 percent, and missed ten treys before finally making a couple of them late, but they were superb at the charity stripe, hitting 31 of 36. Where they really made the impact, though, was at the backboard: the Kings outrebounded the Thunder, 51-36.

Kevin Durant had another one of his patented surges, rolling up 37 points including 18 of 18 free throws, but it ended 3.5 seconds too early: that last trey try would have sent the game into overtime. It was not to be. Jeff Green was good for 19 points tonight, and Nenad Krstić dropped in 12. Serge Ibaka got to play two minutes, in which he got a rebound and hit two free throws, his first points in an NBA season game. The Thunder shot a blah 39.7 percent.

Sacramento is now 4-4, despite the absence of Martin; the Thunder drop to 3-4. Tomorrow, the Blakeless Clippers at the Staples Center. They’re tied for 11th in the West; the Thunder are tied for 9th. After last year, in which it took until the 82nd game to dispatch the Clippers, I am loath to predict anything about tomorrow.

As they did last week before the season started, the Sacramento Kings started Thunder castoff Desmond Mason at the three. The Kings’ actual strategy, though, boiled down to “Give the ball to Kevin Martin as often as possible,” and Martin did his best, rolling up 27 points including 14 for 14 from the stripe, but overall the Sacramento offense was a bit less than cohesive, accumulating a mere 36 boards and 13 assists. Meanwhile, the Thunder scored the first five points, held a 39-22 lead after the first quarter, and made it stick, 102-89.

Speaking of 13 assists, Russell Westbrook served up that many all by himself, along with 14 points and only two turnovers. (Can you say “point guard”?) Also in the double-double club: Kevin Durant, with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Jeff Green dropped in four treys in five tries and finished with 24 points; Nenad Krstić knocked down 20 points. Of the new guys, only James Harden got any minutes: in 13 minutes, he made two shots, one a trey, and hauled in two boards. The sellout crowd (18,203) was happy, though, responding with a standing O as Kevin Ollie dribbled out the last possession.

It’s too early to generalize, obviously, but the Thunder have evidently been working on the long ball, knocking down 8 of 14 from beyond the arc. (The Kings were 3-16.) I have to wonder, though: how did they lose to these guys by 15 last week? And can they beat the new-look Pistons at Auburn Hills? We’ll know the answer to that one, at least, Friday night.

It is no accident, I submit, that Sacramento started Thunder castoff Desmond Mason at small forward: the Kings need all the perceived attitude they can get. Then again, they didn’t need that much, the Thunder still having no answer for the three-ball — Sacramento put up 26 of them, ten of which dropped — and Oklahoma City couldn’t buy a basket after the first quarter. The final was 104-89, and it really wasn’t that close: at one point the Kings had run up a lead of thirty-one. Oh, and Mason was assessed a technical in the third. Just like old times.

So the Loud Atmospheric Noises finish 2-5 in the preseason. Over an 82-game season, that averages out to 23-59. Last year, the Thunder finished with a record of — wait for it — 23-59.

From this point on, it’s all uphill.

Sacramento’s NBA team is not moving anytime soon:

Owners of the Sacramento Kings said Wednesday they have “no deadline” for finding a new arena and the team has no intention of leaving town next year.

Responding to rising fears, team co-owner Gavin Maloof said the team won’t file for relocation by the NBA’s deadline of March 2010.

“No, no, no. There’s no way,” Maloof told The Bee Wednesday, waving his arms emphatically. “We love the market. We love our fans. This is the only place we want to be.”

One of the people sounding the alarm was Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson:

Alarmed by the NCAA’s decision to reject Sacramento’s bid to host a regional round of the men’s basketball tournament at Arco Arena, Johnson said he feared the Kings might leave town if progress isn’t made soon on a new arena.

Maloof subsequently met with Johnson and told him that the team “is not going anywhere.”

And that would seem to be that, at least for this season, which begins for the Kings on the 28th in, um, Oklahoma City.

At the moment, the Sacramento Kings, who finished at the bottom of the NBA standings with a 17-65 record, have no coaching staff.

No, that’s not snark:

Sacramento Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie announced today that the team has decided not to pick up the option on Kenny Natt’s contract for next season, thus relieving him of his coaching duties. In a related move, assistant coaches Rex Kalamian, Jason Hamm, Randy Brown and Bubba Burrage were also relieved of their existing coaching responsibilities.

It appears that a single member of the coaching staff, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, escaped the purge.

Natt, you may remember, replaced Reggie Theus, who was fired after the Kings lost 18 of their first 24 games this season.

Not on the list of candidates: former Kings assistant Scott Brooks, who is now coaching the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Oklahoma City scored the first ten points at Arco Arena tonight, but everyone knew that lead wasn’t going to hold up. The Thunder led by one after the first quarter; the Kings had tied it up at the half. The Thunder led by eight after the third quarter; with ten seconds left, the Kings had pulled to within two. Then Sacramento flubbed it: Andres Nocioni put up an air ball, Bobby Jackson went for the rebound, and the ball bounced out of bounds. The Thunder got the ball back, and with 3.4 seconds left, Thabo Sefolosha sank two free throws, but not Sacramento’s hopes. The Kings, undaunted, used 2.2 seconds to land a trey; Russell Westbrook fumbled the inbound out of bounds, and the Kings got off one last futile shot in the last tenth of a second. Oklahoma City 99, Sacramento 98, the Thunder taking the series 2-1.

The return of Jeff Green was welcome: he rattled down 22 points, including 9 for 9 from the stripe. Westbrook also had 22. But between them, they had 14 turnovers, which explains much about how the Kings were never out of it until literally the very end. Nenad Krstić played Terminator tonight, grabbing 15 boards and blocking three shots to go with his nine points; Malik Rose had 11 points and six rebounds. The Thabster once again held his target (Kevin Martin) to half his point quota. And with Green back, Nick Collison inexplicably (at least, no one explained it to me) drew a DNP-CD.

The Kings had five in double figures, led by Spencer Hawes (20 points, 10 rebounds). As always, Francisco Garcia was sharp from off the bench; he hit 6 of 7 from the floor, four of them treys, for 18 points. Sacramento did foul a lot, though — both Hawes and Nocioni piled up five — and the Thunder responded by hitting 22 of 23 free throws.

Oklahoma City is now 18-46. The tour of the West continues tomorrow at Denver and winds up Saturday at Phoenix.