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Streaking Thunder visit Sacramento

Apr 11, 2011 - 2:58 PM (Sports Network) - The surging Oklahoma City Thunder are still alive for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference with two games to play and will take on a lowly Sacramento Kings squad tonight from California's capital.

Oklahoma City knocked off the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers with Sunday's 120-106 victory at Staples Center behind 31 points from Kevin Durant and 26 points out of Russell Westbrook. James Harden and Serge Ibaka posted 16 and 15 points, respectively, for the Thunder, who have won four straight and 18 of its last 22 games.

The all-around effort pulled Oklahoma City within one game of the Lakers and Mavericks for the second seed in the West. However, the Thunder do not own the tiebreaker against either team.

"Defense got us the basketball, and we made big shots," Durant said. "Everybody did a good job. Tonight was a step in the right direction."

The Thunder shot 55.6 percent for the game. They are 24-16 away from Okie City and will close out the regular season Wednesday at home versus Milwaukee.

Sacramento is playing out the string and will begin a season-ending two-game homestand Monday versus the Thunder and Lakers. It ended a two-game slide and won for the seventh time in 11 tries with Sunday's 104-103 win at Golden State.

Marcus Thornton led the Kings with 21 points, while rookie DeMarcus Cousins posted 15 and 13 rebounds in the win. Tyreke Evans, Beno Udrih and Jason Thompson scored 14 points apiece for Sacramento, which went 2-2 on a four-game road trip.

"We've got two more tough games and those games are building blocks for us to see where we are," Thornton told NBA.com. "I credit the guys for still playing hard."

The Kings are 11-28 at Power Balance Pavilion this season.

Oklahoma City is aiming for a season sweep of Sacramento tonight and has won five straight and eight of the past nine meetings between the teams.