By beating the Portland Blazers on Sunday, Oklahoma City Thunder won their 17th match in 18 encounters this season, one of the most impressive starts in history.
Rest on their laurels? Not for the Thunder. The defending champions had a message to deliver at the start of this season, and particularly on Sunday against the Blazers. Against the only team that had beaten them since the restart, Oklahoma City attacked the match with their foot to the floor to never be in danger. The symbol of this side, in total control of their subject.
OKC were already leading 39-18 after 12 minutes against Portland and never loosened their grip. The recipe was already well mastered in 2024-25, and the title holders seem far from tiring of it.
"We look at each of these matches over 48 minutes, and that's all that matters," summarised Belgian Ajay Mitchell at the press conference. "It doesn't matter if we're leading by 20, 30 points, we want to play the same way for 48 minutes. And I think we've been doing that forever. It's really important because we want to keep building. Every match is an opportunity for us to progress."
In the top 10 in history
It is often the pitfall (or cliché) for teams after reaching the Holy Grail: how to manage the comedown and avoid decompression. The first two victories of the season snatched after two overtime periods against the Rockets and the Pacers could have suggested a more sluggish Thunder at the start.
Here they are now at their cruising speed again... and even accelerated because after 18 matches last season, Oklahoma City had an already very good record of 14 wins for four defeats. This Monday, it stands at 17 successes for a single setback, the tenth team in history to start the regular season on a 17-1 record.
18-0
Golden State Warriors | 2015-16
17-1
New York Knicks | 1969-70
Milwaukee Bucks | 1970-71
Milwaukee Bucks | 1971-72
Portland Trail Blazers | 1990-91
Houston Rockets | 1993-94
Chicago Bulls | 1996-97
Dallas Mavericks | 2002-03
Cleveland Cavaliers | 2024-25
Oklahoma City Thunder | 2025-26
Of all these furious starts, the Thunder are even one of the most impressive. OKC have the best point differential of these ten runs (+305), even stronger than the 2015-16 Warriors (+288), who were then unbeaten and would finish with the best regular season in history (73 wins - 9 defeats).
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Thunder remain hungry despite injuries
"I don't like to compare, I simply think we fight our hardest every time we're on the court," Mark Daigneault explains almost simply. "We try to improve our habits and fundamentals throughout the season. To learn from each match, and start again. You're never as good as you are at the next match, the next moment. Against Utah in the first quarter (the Thunder's second-to-last match), we were on our heels, we had conceded 44 points. Nothing from these first 20 matches or from last season is eternal. You have to do it again and again. And this team understands that. It's one of the things I appreciate about them. So we must learn from tonight's match and start again on Wednesday."
This run is all the more remarkable as second option Jalen Williams has still not played a single minute of the season, just like last season's lottery pick Nikola Topic or this season's first-rounder Thomas Sorber, who is out for the season.
Other key players such as Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Alex Caruso have also missed several encounters. Without changing Oklahoma City's irresistible dynamic.
SGA excused from fourth quarter again
Insatiable, the Thunder are so from start to finish and can afford to do without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the end of matches like on Sunday. The encounter against the Blazers was the 11th of the season during which SGA did not play a single second of the fourth quarter. It is the opportunity for the Canadian to conserve energy whilst the season is still long, whilst offering rotation players and young talents in the squad significant playing time (eleven players above ten minutes average) to be able to progress.
"We try to maximise every minute whatever the circumstances," Mark Daigneault assures. "And when the score is what it is, we try to take advantage of it in every way we can."
The Thunder now face eleven consecutive matches against Western teams, starting Wednesday with a remake of the conference finals from the last playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves which had flirted with a demolition (4-1 and three wins by at least 15 points). And if Oklahoma City need a possible wake-up call against overconfidence, starting strong is no guarantee of success. The Cleveland Cavaliers, who also started on a 17-1 record last season, were eliminated in the conference semi-finals. Of the nine teams with such a record, fewer than half (Knicks 1970, Bucks 1971, Rockets 1994, Bulls 1997) finished the season as champions.
This article was originally published on Basket USA.
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