The Oklahoma City Thunder are stumbling a bit, having dropped two in a row for the first time this season. Both to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday and Thursday, including their first home loss, as the Spurs are the reason for three of Oklahoma City’s five losses on the year.
This stretch has opened the flood gates both locally and nationally for plenty of hot takes and skepticism about the reigning champions who were once thought of as untouchable just three weeks ago.
Now, they have to regroup as they continue this four game home stand. Things resume on Sunday for Oklahoma City as they take on the 76ers, this is the lone above .500 team the Thunder will face over their next three. Philadelphia is just three games above that mark in the Eastern Conference.
To this point in the season, the OKC Thunder have only lost one home game and given the current trend of San Antonio having their number, it is hardly time to call it a trend. What the Thunder have proven over the past three seasons is how hard it is to win in the Paycom Center and how much better the Oklahoma City role players perform in Bricktown.
The Thunder need to approach this stretch with their typical 0-0 mindset and consistence of their one of 82 philosophy. This should be a get-right stretch for this club that has not played to their standard on the defensive end for two straight outings and has seen their offense get messy.
Oklahoma City will get a big boost to their rotation as back up point guard Ajay Mitchell returns to the fold following him clearing the NBA’s concussion protocol that held him out of the previous two games where the non-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander minutes have struggled to gain consistent offense especially in the half court.
Just take Sunday for example, with Joel Embiid and Trendon Watford in street clothes, the OKC Thunder should see Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams have a ton of success on the offensive end as these two desperately need a bounce back performance. After taking on these short handed 76ers, the Thunder enjoy outings against the No. 19 and 21 ranked defensive rating teams in the next two games. This should shift the conversation in a big way for the Thunder’s co-stars.
While Oklahoma City has fallen to the Portland Trail Blazers once this season, it was on the second night of a road-road back-to-back at the start of November. Since then, the Thunder have blown the Blazers out twice looking to make it a third time Wednesday.
This should be a successful week of Thunder basketball, stay tuned to Thunder on SI for complete coverage of this Oklahoma City Thunder season.