Last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder posted a dominant 68-14 regular-season record, finishing as the top seed in the Western Conference and riding that momentum all the way to an NBA championship. This season, the team already has more losses with roughly two months left before the playoffs.
The Thunder fell short vs. the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, losing 124-116. The loss dropped the Thunder to 45-15 entering Thursday, guaranteeing the team will post a worse record this season.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the sky is falling in Oklahoma City. The Thunder have been hit hard by injuries in recent weeks, and Wednesday’s game was the perfect example of that. Seven key players did not participate in the game.
Those players include significant names like Alex Caruso, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, Ajay Mitchell, Thomas Sorber and Jalen Williams. That list includes the team’s top-four scorers this season and one of their strongest defensive players in Caruso.
Given that, it’s impressive that the shorthanded Thunder managed to hang with the Pistons, who sit at 43-14 on the season, good for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. It certainly didn’t help that the Thunder also lost Isaiah Joe and Branden Carlson during that contest, leaving the team even more decimated by injury than expected.
Matching last season’s excellence was always going to be difficult. Any time a team comes off an outlier record — like the Thunder posted last year — regression typically prevents a repeat. While the Thunder have been dominant this year, injuries have plagued them more than expected, leading to the team clinching a worse record with roughly two months to go in the regular season.
That regression shouldn’t be a major concern for the Thunder, especially if all — or at least most — of those players can return in time for the playoffs. Things are looking pretty good on that front. Of those seven players, only Sorber has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Caruso, Hartenstein and Holmgren are all listed as day-to-day and should be back in action soon.
Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to be re-evaluated soon, hinting at a return in the next few games. Williams is roughly a week behind Gilgeous-Alexander, putting both on track to return to the team well ahead of the playoffs.
That’s essentially all that matters for the Thunder at this point. If the team is at full strength by the playoffs, it will still be a force. And while some can argue the Thunder’s record indicates they haven’t been as dominant a year after winning it all, the team’s 45-15 record is still good enough to lead the Western Conference.
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