When one rookie faltered, another was there to pick up the slack.

Omri Casspi missed two free throws with 17.1 seconds left in the game that would have given the Kings a six-point lead.

His head was down, and things didn't look good after Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant made a three-pointer to trim the lead to 99-98 with 4.5 seconds to go.

When another rookie had a chance to ice the game, he came through.

Tyreke Evans made two free throws with 3.5 seconds left as the Kings survived 27 second-half points from Durant to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-98 Tuesday night at Arco Arena.

Durant, who finished with 37 points, missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.

The win was Sacramento's third in a row, matching the longest winning streak of last season.

The win also gave the Kings a 4-4 record. The mark hardly screams championship contender at this stage of the season, but it was significant to a team that hasn't played winning basketball in some time.

The last time the Kings had a .500 record was Dec. 4, 2006 (8-8).

The Kings relied heavily on their young players late in the game. Once it was second-year forward Jason Thompson blocking a shot that would lead to a dunk for Casspi and a six-point lead with 1:17 left in the game.

Then it was another second-year player, Donté Greene, coming off the bench to harass the inbound pass by the Thunder on their final shot attempt.

These Kings showed in one night they are picking up what new coach Paul Westphal is teaching them about how to finish games.

"Learning to close out games is what this league is all about," Westphal said. "First you have to learn to compete, and then you have to learn how to win."

The Kings have played like this without leading scorer Kevin Martin the last three games. Martin is out for at least eight weeks after surgery on his broken left wrist.

Entering the season, the Thunder was considered a dark-horse playoff team. And the Thunder trounced the Kings 102-89 in the season opener.

Westphal believed before the season the Kings would be competitive and not give in. And in the last three games that's proven true.

"I think we're surprising many people in the NBA but not me," said Kings forward Andres Nocioni. "We've practiced really, really hard. We had a great training camp. I used to do the same thing when I first went to Chicago (in 2004-05). We went to training camp playing really hard, and we started the season 0-9, but we started to play really well and we ended up with 47 wins."

Thompson had a double double in his fourth consecutive game with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Evans added 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. He also made all 10 of his free throws to offset his 5-of-16 field-goal shooting.

Westphal also had high praise for third-year center Spencer Hawes (12 points, eight rebounds, four blocks).

Nocioni had 16 points and also drew the task of defending Durant, who made only 9 of 23 from the floor but was 18 of 18 from the foul line.

The Kings weren't known as a defensive bunch in recent seasons but held the Thunder to 39.7 percent shooting.

Sacramento also dominated the rebounding battle, 51-36. It's another area the team has sought to change from recent seasons.

Thompson said the Kings' ability to play tough defense late is just part of what the 2008-09 Kings are about now.

"This is a different team," Thompson said. "We have a different coach, different system, different players, different mentality. It's just nothing like last year, and that's good."

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