Preview: Thunder travel to take on Sacramento Kings

Oklahoma City heads to the West Coast on Wednesday night to play the Sacramento Kings who are looking for their third-straight win.

It might be the Oklahoma City Thunder who has built the reputation of the comeback kings, but its Sacramento that made NBA history with their win over the Timberwolves on Monday night.

Down by 27 at one point, the Kings trailed Minnesota by 17 with 2:49 left to play before mounting a furious rally that would see them send the game into overtime, eventually coming away with a 133-129 win.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, since play-by-play data started being tracked in 1996-96, NBA teams were 0-8,378 when trailing by 17 or more in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.

Of course, Oklahoma City is already intimately familiar with the Kings’ ability to mount a comeback.

The last time these two played, Sacramento was down by 11 in the fourth quarter before coming back to beat OKC on a Bogdan Bogdanovic 3-pointer. Chris Paul was able to get off a shot at the buzzer but it was off the mark.

Paul missed Monday’s game against Dallas due to personal reasons just a day after the death of his close friend Kobe Bryant.

According to Erik Horne of The Athletic, Paul is back with the team in Sacramento and will address the media during postgame.

Paul penned an emotional goodbye to Bryant that he posted on his Instagram page earlier this week.

View this post on Instagram

I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully process it. My parents have always said everything happens for a reason and its in God’s plan. But this one is different. Broken fingers, torn Achilles, it didn’t matter. You overcame it all!! You were DIFFERENT! Sometimes we competed so hard against each other that you could never tell how I was always watching YOU!! I needed to see how much better I needed to get and how much harder I needed to work! The love you had for the game was nowhere near the love you had for YOUR girls!! All 5 of them!! And Gigi, who we had already prearranged her marriage with lil Chris, is as beautiful and feisty as she could ever be!!! As I’ve watched you in retirement, as happy as you’ve ever been, I’ve sat back and prayed and hoped that my baby girl will look at me the way Gigi looks at you!!! I Love You and will miss you with all my heart my brother!!! All my love to Vanessa and all the families during this time 🙏🏾 #Mamba4Life #Mambacita

A post shared by Chris Paul (@cp3) on

Tributes to the late Lakers star have been pouring in since the news of Bryant’s death broke Sunday afternoon.

Oklahoma City honored Bryant with a moment of silence before their game on Monday, and after tip-off, both the Mavericks and the Thunder took 8-second and 24-second violations in tribute.

Sacramento’s Buddy Hield, who wears No. 24, just announced on Wednesday that he will continue to wear the number to honor Bryant’s memory.

“I wanted to be like him, I wanted to work like him, run like him, put the shooting sleeve on like him,” Hield said following shootaround on Wednesday. “I feel like it would still be great to honor him by wearing his number. Unless the NBA says we can’t wear his number, I don’t see any reason.”

Oklahoma City and the Kings will tip-off at 9 p.m. CT in Sacramento.