SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It is only two victories in a row, so the Sacramento Kings aren't about to get carried away. But they do possess a pace, a flow and a fluidity to their game that they didn't have before coach Dave Joerger changed his lineup.

For now, that is good enough.

"When you go through tough situations, sometimes something has got to change," forward Rudy Gay said after the Kings beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-101 Wednesday night at the Golden 1 Center. "We made some changes, and we're running with it."

The Kings, playing a smaller lineup at the start after Joerger decided a unit featuring big men DeMarcus Cousins and Kosta Koufos crowded the key and stifled the creativeness of his guards, used their speed and quickness to score 36 points in the third quarter and pull away. Sacramento (6-9) earned back-to-back victories for just the second time this season.

Cousins scored 36 points, and Gay added 17, with 15 coming in second half. The two did their best work after halftime, combining for 30 points and nine rebounds, and Sacramento pulled away in its second-best offensive outing of the season.

"We have more flow," said Koufos, who started 12 of the Kings' first 13 games before coming off the bench in the past two. "We're moving off screens better. We're moving the ball. We're playing better defense. I've said it before, but our offense is all predicated off our defense, and you're seeing that."

Sacramento's new-look offense was enough to offset the play of Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, who kept his team in the game with another potent performance. Westbrook, the NBA's leader with five triple-doubles, finished with 31 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in 33 minutes, but Oklahoma City couldn't overcome 54 points by the Kings in the key.

"I hate to sound like a broken record, but it's kind of where we're at right now," Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan said. "We've got a group of guys who are young and working and improving ... and they're learning that small things can add up over 48 minutes."

The Thunder tried to defend Cousins with center Steven Adams and Enes Kanter and used few double-teams on him down low. Cousins responded by setting a tone early that he would be the bully. He scored 16 points and grabbed six of his 11 rebounds in the opening quarter.

Gay came alive after halftime, making six of 12 shots in the second half, including three of four from 3-point range. He ripped home a driving dunk off a feed from Darren Collison and canned a top-of-the-arc 3-pointer on successive possessions to help Sacramento extend a 51-48 halftime lead to 87-75. He also finished with nine assists and four assists.

"My legs were sluggish in the first half," he said, attributing his slow start in part to a stomach virus that kept him from practicing Tuesday. "I had to get that out of the way. I've been under the weather and needed to get my legs going."

Koufos and Ben McLemore added nine points apiece off the bench, with Koufos also contributing 10 rebounds.

The Thunder (8-8) never led in the second half and lost for the seventh time in nine games since a 6-1 start. They dropped both games in a back-to-back set against the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings and allowed at least 100 points for the ninth straight game.

"A few breakdowns on defense, a few breakouts for them," Donovan said. "A lot of second-half points."

The Kings put up 36 points in the third quarter, and the Thunder never got closer than 11 points in the final 12 minutes.

Victor Oladipo added 18 points for Oklahoma City, while Adams had 11. Kanter and Andre Roberson contributed 10 points apiece.

NOTES: Oklahoma City G Cameron Payne no longer is wearing a walking boot, the Oklahoman reported. The second-year player, who was the 14th overall pick in the 2014 draft, sustained a second fracture to his right foot on Sept. 27. The Thunder have not said when they expect him to return. ... The Kings' victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday officially came under protest Wednesday, according to multiple media sources. Refs waved off a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer, citing an issue with the game clock's operation. ... Thunder G Russell Westbrook just missed his 43rd career triple-double. The active leader in triple-doubles, Cleveland F LeBron James, recorded his 44th on Wednesday. ... Kings G Omri Casspi, who averaged 27 minutes a game in 69 contests, 21 of them starts, last season, didn't get off the bench for the sixth time in seven games.