Oklahoma City is now second in the Western Conference with a 23-9 record, having won eight of its last nine games. During that time, Oklahoma City has defeated top opponents on the road twice, including the top teams in both conferences (the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Boston Celtics) and the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
The center for the Boston Celtics, Kristaps Porzingis, stated, “I don’t believe this was some fluke game for them,” following his 34-point, 10-rebound performance that was unable to keep Boston’s six-game winning streak intact. They have been performing incredibly well. Are they not at the summit of the West? Thus, it was a great experience for us and a really good team to play against.”
A 23-point home victory against the Timberwolves and a 26-point road rout of the Nuggets are two of the Thunder’s five-game winning run. After leading the Celtics by 18 points with 8:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City appeared to be headed for yet another crushing victory.
After improving by 14 games to 40-42 last season, Oklahoma City—which has the second-youngest squad in the NBA—is making a case to be taken seriously as a contender. Ranking third in net rating (plus-8.5), fourth in defensive rating (110.7), and fifth in offensive rating (119.2), the Thunder have the fourth-best record in the league.
But the Thunder aren’t interested in talking about whether or not they already belong in the conversation about contenders.
Following his 14-point, 7-assist, 4-block performance on Tuesday, Rookie of the Year front-runner Chet Holmgren commented of the Thunder’s impressive run, saying, “It says that we’re really playing together and we’re prioritizing winning over anything else.” However, in the long run, I suppose you could say that it doesn’t really prove anything or sort of satisfy anybody.
“We are aware of how far we still have to go. There are still 50 games left in the season as we are already 32 games in. Many of the things we have already learnt must be kind of kept in the back of our minds since we still have a lot to learn.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the third-best scorer in the league and a standout for Oklahoma City, put on yet another incredible display, finishing with 36 points on 14 of 22 shots. His only points came from a couple of free throws in the fourth quarter, though, as the Celtics chipped away at the advantage to make it a one-possession game in the closing seconds.
With two minutes remained, Gilgeous-Alexander made two of his best plays: he fed center Holmgren for a 3-pointer and, with 26 seconds remaining, he set up a screen to release forward Jalen Williams for a driving floater.
Gilgeous-Alexander had six rebounds and seven assists. “He’s learned how to impact the game in other ways and that’s why he’s a really good player,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of the youngster. “He’s not just a hired-gun scorer.”
A few players from Oklahoma City agreed with Daigneault when he called the final few minutes of the game “sloppy” for the Thunder. They also said they thought some of the lessons Holmgren mentioned were demonstrated by the fact that they had to battle to defeat the Celtics in the final seconds.
Gilgeous-Alexander stated, “I think we’ve all been able to get better because I think we all stay in the moment.” “We simply remain present, focus on the day ahead of us, and attack the program.” Then, we all want to succeed in the end and have the best of intentions.”
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