By Matt Pinto

The Thunder delivered a strong response to Wednesday's road trip opening blow-out loss at Denver by dominating the Clippers 104-87 Friday in Los Angeles. That victory moved them a season high tying 13 games over .500 to 37-24 and has them positioned for a winning road swing with a triumph in the finale of their three game trip this evening in Sacramento at Arco Arena against the 21-41 Kings.

OKC got back to defending with tenacity and unity two nights ago in L.A. blocking 11 shots, coming away with 13 steals and limiting the Clips to 37%FG accuracy. The Thunder have now won four of their last five, 13 of their last 16 and six of their last eight games on the road. They'll look to extend those trends against a familiar foe. This will be the fourth and final clash between these two Western Conference rivals this season and their second meeting in the last six days.

Oklahoma City has won two of the three collisions head to head this season including a 113-107 triumph Tuesday night at the Ford Center that saw Kevin Durant (29.7ppg, 7.6rpg) pour in 39 points while pulling down 10 rebounds while Russell Westbrook (16.6ppg, 7.9apg) pumped in 30 points, dishing out 13 assists. Sacramento is missing it's best rebounder Jason Thompson due to a back injury and OKC took advantage of his absence with 17 offensive rebounds for 23 second chance points on Tuesday. We'll see if they can get after it in that fashion on the glass in this one.

The Thunder allowed 54%FG shooting in the Tuesday meeting against the Kings. They'll need to do a much better job defending likely NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans (20.3ppg) who had 27 points and attempted 17 free throws that night. In addition Sacramento's solid offensive supporting cast for Evans is capable with Carl Landry (16.3ppg) doing his thing in the low and mid-post area, point guard Beno Udrih (12.3ppg, 3.8apg) driving to distribute or knocking down long range shots, and explosive sixth man Francisco Garcia (6.8ppg) contributing his versatility (he drilled 5 of 9 shots for 13 points in the most recent game between these two). OKC will be challenged by not only a Sacramento squad that is playing decently lately winning three of it's last five games but the fact that there figures to be very little energy in the building because the Kings are not drawing well.

If the Thunder can come close to duplicating their defensive effort of Friday in L.A. they should be in good shape at night's end.