The Oklahoma City Thunder is enduring its worst run of form in two years, but there may be an easy explanation for the downturn. Speaking on the Gils Arena Show, former NBA guard Rashad McCants made one astonishing revelation as to why the Thunder have lost their magic touch.
After securing the 2025 NBA championship, the Thunder picked up exactly where they left off at the start of this season, winning 24 of their opening 25 games. At the beginning of December, the Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns 138-89 in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, setting a franchise record with 16 straight wins.
What’s Gone Wrong for the Oklahoma City Thunder?
The reigning champions equalled the 2015/16 Golden State Warriors’ record as the best start to an NBA season, and those Warriors went on to create history. Stephen Curry and Co. reached a record 73 wins during that season, and it looked as though the Thunder could have matched it.
However, things haven’t been the same since they reached 24 wins.
Why? Was it the schedule?
Giving his take on the reason behind OKC’s dropoff, McCants said, “They had the easiest schedule to begin the season. They did what they were supposed to do with that schedule. But when they start playing teams that are getting their sh*t together, we’re going to see some sh*t change.”
In their opening 19 games, the Thunder had the most manageable schedule by a healthy margin, with a cumulative opponent winning percentage of .352. In those games, 16 teams had winning records. The Thunder only faced four of them in that stretch. But we haven’t finished there.
Only the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets ranked in the top 10 offensively, while they faced 11 teams in the bottom 10 for offensive rating, including eight games against the bottom five.
Since beating the Suns in the NBA Cup quarterfinal, the Thunder started their poor run with a loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup semifinal.
During that 12-game stretch, they won six games and lost six, with the Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves, Suns, and Charlotte Hornets all picking up wins.
In their remaining 45 games of the regular season, the Thunder has statistically the toughest run-in of all 30 teams, with the cumulative winning percentage of the rest of their opponents being .545.
They still must face the Spurs twice, the Detroit Pistons twice, the Los Angeles Lakers three times, the Denver Nuggets four times, the Houston Rockets twice, and the Boston Celtics twice.
The Thunder still have breathing room at the summit of the Western Conference (30-7), but can they withstand the pressure of the most rigid fixture schedule in the NBA?
