Nuggets and Notes
The Thunder will not win 100% of their games. No fair.
The Thunder dropped to 8-1, losing for the first time in their title defense.
Oklahoma City hadn't lost a game that counted in 139 days. Turns out, it still sucks to lose even when you're the defending champ with all the excuses in the world to come up short: Second night of a back to back. No Chet. No Dort. (Still) no J Dub. Against the exact kind of young team that can catch a heavyweight with relentless dancing and jabbing for the upset. Still. No fun.
The Blazers are fun and scrappy. But that's not a challenge for the Thunder on most nights. Because the Thunder are great and scrappy. They do not play down to lesser competition; they hustle and fight to win every edge nearly every possession. This has increasingly resulted in blowouts after pressing their advantages for 48 minutes against any team, because every other team has less talent and less mettle than OKC.
But the Blazers played like the Thunder, right down to an eerily similar box score.
The only category with more than a three point swing in either team's favor, by the percentages or counting stats, was three-point shooting. More on that later.
The Thunder looked tired, but clearly wanted to keep the winning streak alive. They never let go of the rope, but had an inexcusable defensive lapse late in the fourth quarter that proved too much to overcome. Trying to keep it a single possession game, OKC gifted Portland a layup with 36 seconds to go thanks to a complete failure in blitzing and recovering by the team with championship experience.
We are going to start recognizing the Thunder blueprint in other developing rosters more and more. It's a copycat league, and team-building has typically followed the strengths of its most dominant rosters. Boston was already a harbinger for rangy, all-3-and-D everywhere rosters spreading. Oklahoma City has added depth, speed, and defensive aggression to that formula, and other teams are trying to keep up.
Shai was not intimidated by the mighty Donovan Clingan, which is no surprise. But he had an off night shooting, missing 7 of 10 shots between the arc and the paint, and all five shots he took from the free throw circle.
Ajay Mitchell was also not intimidated, a more recent development from the second-year standout. Mitchell was looking off kickouts in favor of getting to the cup, where he converted 6 of 8 attempts. That's a higher volume and efficiency than Shai, Victor Wembanyama, and Tyrese Maxey have averaged this season.
Ajay has been such a revelation that I caught myself feeling silly doing the following: worrying about foul trouble for a second-year player who contributed fewer than 20 minutes in the Finals.
Then, there we were, relying on Mitchell in clutch time. He scored 13 fourth-quarter points, filling the secondary playmaking needs that Jalen Williams usually handles in big games.
It only took me one loss to become anxious for J Dub's return. Good thing I don't run the front office.
I'm not closely tracking the Shai scoring streak (he's scored 20+ and 30+ points in every regular season game for a very long time) since it's not a streak anyone cared about before now, and since he scored only 18 points in a 2025 postseason game. But I am closely tracking how easy it is for him to get points whenever he wants. 35 on an off-night (SGA was 10-26 from the floor) is still impressive.
The last minute of the second quarter was maddening. Lengthy reviews and commercials drained the excitement from an otherwise thrilling last-second tip-in by Isaiah Hartenstein to close the half. I don't know why they still can't figure out the right balance between exercising judgment and Zaprudering replays, and I'm doubtful they ever will. If AI can do better than our referee teams moving the game along to maintain excitement for the viewer, I welcome some robot overlording.
But I'm guessing AI was to blame for a random, weird stat on the broadcast marquee. The Thunder were up 36-16 in the first quarter, and Jerami Grant had just given me de ja vu with a failed flailing drive into the paint. What information popped onto my screen? That OKC had made O field goals in the last 53 seconds of play. Okay. Aaron Wiggins immediately scored a fast break layup to end the drought.
Hartenstein got robbed in the box score. This was clearly a block.
One Big Takeaway: Three-Point Swings
The Thunder have lost one game by two points. And there's no rational reason to be upset by the end of the winning streak.
But.
For all the impressive development and cohesion on the team, both offensively and defensively, it's just a fact that long range shooting is where they can improve most dramatically. They didn't shoot poorly in this one, but had they made a couple more threes, they would've survived with the victory.
We've all been a little too quick to argue over how to break up the team for looming salary cap restraints. It's fun to speculate about whose deals can squeeze into the long-term plans for OKC, especially since there's less reason to speculate about blockbuster trades and signings that won't be happening. But if you're gonna let your mind wander, don't wander much inside the three-point arc.
The team doesn't need more defense, playmaking, size, or any other on-court element more than it needs shooting. Shooting that will hold up in close regular season and, most importantly, postseason games with thin margins. The more reliable this team's three-point shooting is, the more truly unstoppable they become.