Game Preview: Kings At Thunder

(AP) - The injury-depleted Oklahoma City Thunder are suddenly on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture.

A visit from the lowly Sacramento Kings could help them climb back in.

The Thunder try to quickly turn things around as they go for a 13th consecutive home win over the Kings on Friday night.

Oklahoma City (42-36) has lost four straight and six of seven to drop into an eighth-place tie with New Orleans for the Western Conference's final postseason spot with four games to go. The Thunder, however, would have to finish with a better record than the Pelicans to earn the West's last available berth because they lost the season series tiebreaker.

Just 2 1/2 weeks ago, Oklahoma City had been three games ahead of Phoenix - since eliminated - and 3 1/2 better than New Orleans for the No. 8 spot.

"We have to stay together, believe in ourselves, regroup and come back focused," guard Dion Waiters said following Tuesday's 113-88 loss to San Antonio. "We have to be locked in. These next four games are very important for us, and everybody has to be on the same page."

Russell Westbrook finished with a team-high 17 points after sitting out the fourth quarter with the game out of reach, dropping his season average to 27.5 and falling behind James Harden for the league lead. Oklahoma City was outscored 29-10 over the first 12 minutes and trailed by as many as 34.

"They came out and jumped on us from the get-go," Westbrook said. "We just weren't ready for it, but we've got another game on Friday, and we've got to get ready for that one."

The Thunder should like their chances of regrouping against the Kings, whom they have outscored by an average of 13.0 points during a 12-game home winning streak. Oklahoma City had taken 12 straight in the series overall before falling 104-83 on Jan. 7.

Westbrook was held to 10 points on a season-worst 3 of 19 from the floor that night while Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins scored a combined 51 for Sacramento.

Gay has missed four of the last five games due to a concussion while Cousins sat out the last two with a foot injury. The Kings aren't likely to get much sympathy from the Thunder, who continue to play without reigning MVP Kevin Durant (foot surgery) and Serge Ibaka (knee surgery).

"No matter how you slice it, it's not a fair fight," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of facing Oklahoma City. "You feel badly. You see Kevin in that chair out there and the other guys that are hurt and it's not a fair fight."

The Kings (27-51) are coming off their sixth loss in seven games, 103-91 at Utah on Wednesday. Coach George Karl was forced to go with Omri Casspi, Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, Ben McLemore and Ray McCallum as his starting unit with Darren Collison (core muscle), Nik Stauskas (back) and Erick Moreland (shoulder) also out.

"I always compare it to my CBA days," Karl said. "Where you lose a guy to Europe, then another guy gets hurt, then another guy gets called up to the NBA. Your whole personality of your team changes. Our job is to figure out how to piece and put the puzzle together in a way ... every NBA team has a lot of talent on it. Sometimes the talent that doesn't play just needs the opportunity to play."

Casspi has been a rare bright spot with 19.2 points per game over the last five.

Oklahoma City has lost three straight home games after winning 20 of 22.

Updated April 9, 2015