OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Thunder are finding the roles of contender and champion to be very different.
Led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the young squad won the NBA title last season after years of showing promise.
Oklahoma City started this season with a 24-1 record, matching the best 25-game start in league history. The possibility of the Thunder bettering Golden State’s 73-9 regular season record from 2015-16 became a popular topic among the league’s fans and experts.
Then, cracks developed in the Thunder’s seemingly impenetrable armor. The Spurs beat them three times in two weeks, including a 15-point win on Christmas Day.
Monday night’s lesson was different, though. It was a humbling 124-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a team that entered the night with a 12-23 record.
Gilgeous-Alexander said it isn’t time to overreact.
“There’s a lot of games left in the season,” he said. “We’ve won big. We’ve lost big. Some nights are going to be bad. Some nights are going to be great. But regardless, you have to try to get better the next day. I think that’s what allows you to, I guess you can say, be resilient. It’s hard, obviously, but the best teams do it, and that’s who we’re trying to be.”
It’s strange that a Thunder team with a 30-7 record and a 98-21 regular-season mark since the start of last season is drawing such scrutiny. But they are 6-6 since the incredible start to this season, and the losses to the Spurs made them seem closer to the pack.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said games like Monday’s help his team understand what a game against them means for their opponents.
“When you win the championship and you start the way we started, it comes with the territory,” he said. “I think it gives you a unique opportunity to really improve through that. … It’s a competitive privilege to be a team that other teams are up to play for.”
The Thunder didn’t rise to the occasion Sunday against Phoenix or Monday against Charlotte. They lost consecutive games for just the second time this season.
Daigneault finds value in the tests, even when the team fails.
“It forces you to rise to that,” he said. “And if you can, you really can get better and stronger as a result of that. And if you don’t, you learn the lesson. So we got to learn the lessons in these ones.”
One of the strangest developments has been how the Thunder have not been as effective since 2025 All-Star Jalen Williams has returned from wrist surgery. They are 18-2 without him in the starting lineup and 12-5 with him.
Still, the team has the league’s best record and leads the NBA in net rating and defensive rating. Gilgeous-Alexander was the Western Conference Player of the Month for December, and Chet Holmgren was the conference’s defensive player of the month.
Oklahoma City has dealt with numerous other injuries throughout this season, with Holmgren missing several games. Even against Charlotte, the Thunder were missing starting center Isaiah Hartenstein and key reserves Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams.
The Thunder are among the league’s deepest teams, so they usually find success with the next player. When that doesn’t happen, the team reflects.
“You have to approach it with the right level of gravity,” Holmgren said. “You can’t just brush it off and wipe the film and say on to the next, but you also can’t overreact and allow the emotions of obviously losing a game nobody likes to lose — you can’t let that take over either and pull you in the wrong direction.”
Daigneault said he’s not worried.
“When the wind’s in your face, you’ve got to endure,” he said. “You’ve got to have the resilience and the toughness to continue to compete, continue to stay together, continue to focus on the controllable execution things that help you change course. And so that’s what we’ll do. That’s what we’ve always done and what we will do in this situation.”
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