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Thunder continue road trip at Sacramento

Feb 9, 2012 - 3:49 PM (Sports Network) - The NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder have been moving along quite steadily this season and will try to keep it that way when they resume a five-game road trip tonight against the Sacramento Kings.

Oklahoma City is coming off Tuesday's 119-116 victory over the Golden State Warriors in which Kevin Durant poured in a team-best 33 points on 13-of-27 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out seven assists. Durant, who hit the go-ahead basket with 14.2 seconds left, has scored 30 or more points in five of his last seven games, averaging 31.4 ppg in that span.

Russell Westbrook also hit the 30-point mark with 31 points and James Harden provided 19 in a reserve role. The Thunder survived a 48-point performance by Warriors guard Monta Ellis and a triple-double from big man David Lee (25 p, 11 r, 10 a). Thunder head coach Scott Brooks was pleased with the effort.

"Our guys never gave up. We fought back and continued to believe in each other," Brooks said following his team's 15th win in 18 tries.

Daequan Cook scored 17 points for the Thunder, who have the league's best record at 20-5 and improved to 11-4 away from home this season. Oklahoma City will close out the journey Friday against the Utah Jazz. Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha missed his sixth consecutive game with right foot soreness and is still out indefinitely.

The Northwest Division-leading Thunder are one of only four Western Conference teams (Denver, Minnesota and the LA Clippers) to boast a winning road record.

Sacramento is in the basement of the Pacific Division and had a season-high three-game winning streak come to an end with Tuesday's 86-84 loss at Minnesota. Marcus Thornton had a team-best 22 points and DeMarcus Cousins recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"We had an opportunity for a shot but it didn't go down," said Sacramento head coach Keith Smart. "The players fought and played well enough to get back into the game after a really bad first quarter."

Kings rookie Jimmer Fredette scored 13 points as a reserve and Tyreke Evans posted 11 points for the Kings, losers in six of nine games. The Kings will close out the homestand Saturday versus Phoenix and are 6-4 as the host. Minnesota's Nikola Pekovic abused the Kings to the tune of 23 points and 10 rebounds, and earned the attention of Sacramento head coach Keith Smart.

"He is a man down there," Smart said of Pekovic. "He plays in the trenches where you have to play with a physical game and that young man has been playing well for over a week and a half now."

Cousins has recorded 17 double-doubles this season, third-most in the NBA this season (behind Kevin Love and Dwight Howard), and is averaging 19.7 ppg and 16.7 rpg in the last three, recording double-doubles in each contest. Cousins recorded 26 double-doubles as a rookie last season.

Sacramento lost all four meetings with the Thunder last season and is winless in the past six matchups between the teams. Oklahoma City has won nine of 10 and 10 of the last 13 encounters with the Kings. Durant is averaging 28.3 points in 14 career games against Sacramento.

The Kings have lost all five visits to Oklahoma City.