The story of this Oklahoma City Thunder team is best told in numbers, and let’s start with this one.
Late Tuesday night, with a 124-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors, the Thunder improved to 21-1, becoming just the third team in NBA history to record such a start or better.
Entering the night, they led the NBA in defensive rating, allowing just 103.6 points per 100 possessions … which was 7.0 fewer than the next closest team.
Entering the night, they led the league with a net rating of 15.3.
Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded his 94th consecutive 20-point game, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain (126). SGA ranks second in the league in scoring.
They are — far and away — the most dominant team in the NBA, with stars often resting in fourth quarters because games are so out of hand. But it’s one other number that Oklahoma City is chasing: 74.
Not only are the Thunder on pace to become the first team in 10 seasons to reach 70 wins, they pose a legitimate threat to eclipse the record-setting 73 victories the Warriors achieved in 2015-16. After all, a 70-win season would represent just a modest increase over last season, when they won 68.
To that point, OKC is already superbly locked in, its roster is balanced and deep and coaches and players are almost obsessively nerdy about basketball.
When asked before Tuesday’s game about how Oklahoma City could improve even with their near-unblemished record, coach Mark Daigneault made it clear the Thunder wouldn’t settle.
“I think the first thing is — and this isn’t blowing smoke — it’s like none of that matters tonight,” Daigneault said of his team’s early success. “All the stuff that we’ve done well to this point doesn’t carry over. Tonight’s a new opportunity. The better team tonight will win. That’s the competitive challenge, and that’s one of the beauties of our players: that competitive challenge turns them on.”
Jalen Williams, 24, was a first-time All-Star last season. Recovering from a torn ligament in his right wrist, he missed the first 19 games of this season. Williams is a righty. Unable to shoot with his right hand over the offseason, he became so bored and frustrated that he worked exclusively on his left, even developing an off-hand jumper.
But the Thunder are also built to smother and overwhelm opponents. They pick up full-court pressure just as easily as they clamp down in half-court sets. They emphasize efficiency, ranking second turnover percentage (12.4%) and first in turnovers forced (17.9 per game). They don’t score in runs or bursts; they score in avalanches that squeeze the life out of opponents.
Tuesday night, the Warriors went on a third-quarter run to close the margin from 22, eventually taking a four-point lead in the fourth (103-99). Oklahoma City responded by not pressing and ripping off a 25-9 run to close the game.
Granted, the Thunder have played the NBA’s easiest schedule thus far, and have the league’s toughest remaining slate, so it won’t be an easy path. Oklahoma City will have to evade the pitfalls of complacency.
Their lone loss was an aberration, a two-point defeat on Wednesday, Nov. 5 against the Portland Trail Blazers. For the Thunder to make history, they will not be able to let up.
Tuesday night’s opposing coach, Steve Kerr, knows all about that. He orchestrated that 2015-16 team’s run to 73 wins, surpassing the 1995-96 Bulls — a team in which Kerr was a player.
“Overall a team mindset of zero agendas,” Kerr said prior to the game when asked what it takes to get to 70 victories. “Just win every night. Obviously great talent, but I think high-IQ players. The two teams you’re referring to that I was part of, both had really, really high IQs individually and as a team. That’s what I see with OKC: really, really smart players, great coach, really connected. They’re on pace to shatter the record, it’s pretty remarkable what they’re doing.”
The scary part — for the rest of the NBA, that is — is that the Thunder are the sixth-youngest team in the league, with an average age of 24.53 entering the season. They are coming off an NBA championship; they know what it takes to get there and know how they can get even better.
“They have a deeper level of confidence now that they’ve won it all,” Kerr said. “Then the continuity is so powerful. All their actions that they’re running, they’re so comfortable with. They’ve expanded their offense a little bit; they have a little more motion than they did a year ago.”
The wild card, however, is that the more the Thunder win, the greater the pressure intensifies.
“These are all things that, in my experience, happen after the championship, after the first one,” Kerr said. “You just got a little different swagger, a little different belief.
“But, yeah, next year is the harder one.”
