{"id":60804,"date":"2024-01-05T14:48:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T19:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=60804"},"modified":"2024-01-05T14:48:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T19:48:31","slug":"time-to-raise-expectations-for-the-okc-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/01\/05\/time-to-raise-expectations-for-the-okc-thunder\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Time to Raise Our Expectations for the OKC Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entering the new year, the Oklahoma City Thunder sit at 23-10 and are the second seed in the Western Conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Thunder\u2019s recently-ended five-game winning streak included a 23-point home blowout of the Minnesota Timberwolves and a 26-point road rout of the Denver Nuggets. Oklahoma City seemed to be on the verge of another lopsided win over the Boston Celtics, going up by 18 with 8:25 remaining in the fourth quarter before ultimately winning the game by four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In their last 10 games, the Thunder are 8-2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma City, which has the second-youngest roster in the NBA, has emerged as a contender, following a 16-win improvement last season from 2020-21 to go 40-42. The Thunder own the league\u2019s fourth-best record, ranking third in net rating (8.1), sixth in defensive rating (111.3), and fifth in offensive rating (119.5). Overall, they have exceeded <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/11\/22\/okc-thunder-booming\/\" target=\"_self\">expectations<\/a>, and it&#8217;s time to raise ours.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>It&#8217;s Time to Raise Our Expectations of the OKC Thunder<\/h2>\n<h3>OKC Is Thriving in Clutch Time<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far this season, the Thunder have excelled in clutch-time situations. Clutch time is the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In particular, the trio of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holmgch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chet Holmgren<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willija06.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Williams<\/a><\/strong> are incredibly productive in the game\u2019s most significant moments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some notable stats about the Thunder\u2019s trio in the clutch are:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gilgeous-Alexander (46 minutes)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">53 points\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Seven<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> assists (0 turnovers!)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nine rebounds<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three steals<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">19\/30 FG<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70 TS%<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holmgren (50 minutes)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">43 points<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two assists (two turnovers)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">17 rebounds<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seven blocks<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15\/26 FG<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70 TS%<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williams (46 minutes)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">33 points<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four assists (one turnover)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seven rebounds\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11\/14 FG<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">85 TS%<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far this season, OKC is 11-6 in the clutch.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>A Brutal January Stretch<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OKC has passed some extensive recent eye tests with flying colors, but January will differ. The Thunder have had three back-to-back sets through 30 games, two of which were in OKC. In January alone, the Thunder have five back-to-back sets. Only one set has both games in the same city (at Los Angeles Lakers and at Los Angeles Clippers).<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The OKC Thunder&#8217;s Time Is Now<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s hard to believe the Thunder are on pace for 59 wins with as much youth as they have.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gilgeous-Alexander is already an MVP candidate, Holmgren is an All-Defense candidate as a rookie (and making a strong case for Rookie of the Year), and Williams is one of the league\u2019s best young players. All three of them could become All-NBA players in the same season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Oklahoma City has impressive depth with selfless shooters and defenders, plus one of the league\u2019s best coaches in Mark Daigneault.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When you look at the numbers, basic or advanced, it shows the makings of a team that is ready to win now. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Young teams usually don\u2019t contend for championships. But, young teams typically aren\u2019t this talented this soon. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And, front offices rarely have such a bounty of assets: 15 future first-round picks and 22 future seconds over the next seven years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, it\u2019s not out of the question to say the Thunder are just one or two moves away from true title contention. It\u2019s just a matter of which players become available and when general manager Sam Presti decides to strike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With that being said, the Thunder are still one of the youngest teams in the NBA. They have no playoff experience. They will likely keep the team as-is while maybe making a move around the margin. It would be surprising if they made a big move, even though they have <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first-round picks stockpiled.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Entering the new year, the Oklahoma City Thunder sit at 23-10 and are the second seed in the Western Conference.\u00a0 The Thunder\u2019s recently-ended five-game winning streak included a 23-point home blowout of the Minnesota Timberwolves and a 26-point road rout of the Denver Nuggets. Oklahoma City seemed to be on the verge of another lopsided [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4946,"featured_media":60822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1608,2,62],"tags":[4292,4609,1489],"class_list":["post-60804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thunder","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-jalen-williams","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}