A quick look at the statistical breakdown of a game often reveals little about how the game was won or lost.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's 108-102 victory over the Kings on Sunday was explained quite fully in by the box score.

The Thunder (38-24) outrebounded the Kings 45 to 33, including a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds. The Thunder converted that advantage into a 23-11 second-chance points margin that the Kings had difficulty overcoming.

Sacramento (21-42) also hurt itself at the free-throw line. The Kings made just 15 of 24 (62.5 percent) free-throws, while Oklahoma City shot 22 of 25 (88 percent) from the line.

Those factors nullified the Kings outshooting the Thunder in field-goal percentage and three-point field-goal percentage.

Oftentimes, it's the little things that determine a game's outcome and that's how it worked at Arco Arena before a crowd of 12,081.

There is no statistic for getting to loose balls, but it appeared as if the Thunder won the battle for about 80 percent of the balls up for grabs.

Kings newcomer Carl Landry had a solid game with 20 points and eight rebounds, but said the fault was with his team.

"They wanted it more than us," he said of the Thunder. "They won't do that to us all the time. But they were quicker to the ball and they outworked us. I gave up a couple of rebounds (Sunday night) and so did my teammates."

The game was physical and aggressive. Four technical fouls were called by the officiating crew of Greg Willard, Tommy Nunez and Gary Zielinsky. Three, all in the first half, were called on the Thunder.

Thunder forward Kevin Durant, who scored a game-high 27 points, said the consistent talking between the teams was a result of competition.

"We know (the Kings) and they know us," said Durant, who got what he said was the second technical of his career. "There is nothing personal between us. We're young and they are young. We just wanted this win really bad.

Durant also added eight rebounds and five assists, while point guard Russell Westbrook had 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists sandwiched around receiving six stitches from an inadvertent elbow by Landry.

Westbrook, who likely will join Durant as an All-Star soon, used his speed and strength to get into the lane consistently to score of or get shots for his teammates.

The Kings often played off Westbrook and still couldn't stay in front of him.

"He's very fast and very good," Kings coach Paul Westphal said said Kings coac Paul Westphal of Westbrook.

The second-year guard from UCLA, who had a ridiculously sick dunk here for the Bruins during an NCAA tournament game, said he likes it when defenders play off him.

"It makes it easier for me when they do that because they don't know when I'm going to shoot or just keep going to the hole," Westbrook said.

Kings guard Tyreke Evans scored a team-high 24 points and also had seven assists, but may have had the most impactful moment of the night when he banged knees with Thunder forward Nick Collison.

"It just stung a lot at first," the rookie said. "It felt all right once I started running."

Jason Thompson returned to action for the Kings after missing five days with a lower back injury. Thompson came off the bench to score 11 points and grab a team-high tying eight rebounds in 30 minutes.