We’re officially at the ceremonious halfway point of the 2025-26 regular season. The NBA All-Star break is here. The Oklahoma City Thunder will get a chance to kick up their feet and enjoy some water before the stretch run of the hopeful nine-month marathon.

And boy, do they need the breather.

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The Oklahoma City Thunder limped to the NBA All-Star break with a 110-93 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. With both teams without their MVP candidate, the former couldn’t overcome Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s absence as he deals with an abdominal strain.

Oh, and Jalen Williams was out. He re-aggravated his hamstring strain after just two games back. And Isaiah Hartenstein was out. He continues to manage a soleus strain.

As the Thunder look more human than invincible during a mediocre 18-13 stretch, it’s important to remember just how important health is for any title contender. With the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs right behind them in the NBA standings, think it’s easy to explain why OKC has suddenly cooled off.

If the Thunder want to go back-to-back, they must remain healthy. Simple as that. They rank among the highest teams of games missed due to injuries. Everybody on the roster has missed at least a handful of games this year. With muscle strains being the scariest reason.

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“The last time we had this kind of sustained break was before the season. The next time you get this type of sustained break is after the season. You’ve got to just fill your tank, however you need to do that,” Daigneault said. “The guys have been around, most of them, so they understand what they need to do individually to get themselves mentally, physically and emotionally recharged for the stretch run. So we trust them to handle their business in a way that best positions us as we come out of the break.”

Even though the NBA All-Star break is the ceremonious halfway point of the regular season, we’re really two-thirds of the way through it. At the mark, the Thunder have already tied their loss total from last year. A mediocre two months have most folks worried about OKC — especially if you look at the standings. But Daigneault has actually been encouraged, all things considered.

“We started 24-1. Since that point to now, I actually think that stretch has probably been better for us than starting 24-1 and kinda cruising in a rhythm the way that we were early. Happy we played well. It obviously gave us a great cushion and positioned us well as we come down the stretch,” Daigneault said. “But in terms of building the best team we can be in strengthening ourselves, improving through the season, we’ve had to face adversity. We’ve had to solve a lot of problems. We’ve had to be highly adaptive. We’ve had to draw on a lot of different players in a lot of different roles. Typically, that stuff is an investment and can pay dividends down the road if you approach it the right way.”

We’ll see how Daigneault’s confidence ages over the next few months. Most Thunder fans have at least hovered their hand over the panic button. But inside the building, you can sense a different story.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Why Mark Daigneault is actually encouraged by Thunder’s recent stretch