Playing every minute to the max, the secret of the historic Thunder

Resting on your laurels? Very little for the Thunder. The reigning champion had a message to convey at the beginning of the season, and especially Sunday against the Blazers. Against the only team he’s dropped since the restart, Ololama City attacked the match with his feet on the floor so that he would never be put in danger. The symbol of this training, in the complete mastery of the subject.

OKC already led 39-18 after 12 minutes against Portland and didn’t let up again. The recipe is already well mastered in 2024/25, and the incumbent seems far from getting tired of it.

« We watch each of these matches for more than 48 minutes, and that’s all that matters » summed up the Belgian Ajay Mitchell at the press conference. « It doesn’t matter if we lead by 20, 30, we want to play the same way for 48 minutes. And I think we’ve been doing this forever. That’s really important because we want to keep building. Every match is an opportunity for us to improve. »

In the Top 10 in history

This is often a pitfall (or cliché) for teams after reaching the Grail: how to manage the descent and avoid decompression. The first two wins of the season came in two overtimes against the Rockets, and the Pacers pointed to a slower Thunder early on.

Here he is now at his new cruising speed… and even faster because after 18 games last season, Oklahoma City already had a very good record of 14 wins and 4 losses. This Monday, there were 17 wins for a narrow loss, the 10th team in history to start the regular season 17-1.

18-0

• Golden State Warriors | 2015-2016

17-1

• New York Knicks | 1969-1970
• Milwaukee Bucks | 1970-1971
• Milwaukee Bucks | 1971-1972
• Portland Trail Blazers | 1990-1991
• Houston Rockets | 1993-1994
• Chicago Bulls | 1996-1997
• Dallas Mavericks | 2002-2003
• Cleveland Cavaliers | 2024-2025
• Oklahoma City Thunder | 2025-2026

Of all these furious departures, the Thunder is even one of the most memorable. OKC has the best point differential of these ten stretches (+305), even stronger than the 2015-/16 Warriors (+288), then undefeated and going on to finish with the best regular season in history (73 wins – 9 losses).

« I don’t like to compare, I just think that we fight to the maximum every time we are on the field » explains Mark Daigneault almost simply. « We try to improve our habits and our fundamentals throughout the season. To learn from every game and to start again. You are never as good as you are in the next game, the next moment. Against Utah in the first quarter (Thunder’s penultimate gameeditor’s note), we were on our heels, we conceded 44 points. None of these first 20 games or last season last forever. You have to do it over and over again. And this team understands that. That’s one of the things I love about her. So we have to learn from tonight’s game and do it again on Wednesday. »

This series is all the more significant because it is the second option Jalen Williams he still hasn’t played a single minute this season, just like last season’s “lottery” Nikola Topic or the first round of this season, Thomas Sorberpackage for the season.

Other frameworks like Lou Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe or Alec Caruso he also missed several meetings. Without changing anything about the overwhelming dynamism of Oklahoma City.

“SGA” is still exempt from the fourth quarter

Insatiable, the Thunder are from start to finish and can afford to end a match, like Sunday, without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The game against the Blazers was the 11th of the season in which “SGA” did not play a single second of the fourth quarter. This is an opportunity for a Canadian to save money while the season is still longwhile offering rotation players and young players in the squad significant playing time (eleven players averaging above ten minutes) so they can progress.

« We try to make the most of every minute regardless of the circumstances » assures Marc Daigneault. ” And when the result is what it is, we try to use it in any way we can. »

The Thunder now have eleven matches against teams from the West, starting on Wednesday with a remake of the conference final of the last playoffs against the Wolves who flirted with a demonstration (4-1 and three successes by at least 15 points). And if Oklahoma City needs a possible wake-up call against overconfidence, a strong start is no guarantee of success. The Cavaliers, also 17-1 last season, were eliminated in the conference semifinals. Of the nine teams with that record, less than half (1970 Knicks, 1971 Bucks, 1994 Rockets, 1997 Bulls) finished the season as champions.