SAN FRANCISCO — With all due respect to these Oklahoma City Thunder, the truth is that they don’t know what it takes to win 73 games in an NBA regular season.

Not yet, anyway.

That was the irony of their 124-112 win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, when they became just the fourth team in league history to win at least 21 of their first 22 games (they’re 21-1) by beating the resident experts on that very topic. This current Warriors team isn’t nearly as good as the 2015-16 version that went a record 73-9 before fumbling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, but plenty of familiar faces from that squad remain.

Yet of all the voices that carry such serious weight in this discussion, from Steph Curry to Draymond Green and the like, none is more insightful than that of longtime Warriors coach Steve Kerr. Not only was he manning the bench for Golden State at that time, but he was once the super sixth man on the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10 and began a three-peat. And if the Thunder’s 74-win watch wasn’t official before, then it became official when Kerr said he believes they can do it.

“Overall, (it takes) a team mindset of zero agendas — just win every night,” Kerr said before tipoff. “Obviously (it takes) great talent. But I think (it’s also) high IQ from players. The two teams that you’re referring to that I was part of (the Bulls and Warriors) both had really, really high IQs — individually and as a team. That’s what I see in OKC. Really, really smart players. A great coach (in Mark Daigneault). Really connected.

“Yeah, they’re on pace to shatter the record. It’s pretty remarkable what they’re doing.”

The surreal part, and the thing that should get the attention of anyone skeptical about whether these Thunder can do it, is that even Draymond Green was willing to give a blessing of sorts.

“It’s hard, man, but I do think they’re capable,” Green said after the game when I asked him about the Thunder’s potential to win 73-plus. “You just need so many things to go right, though — from health, (although) they kind of plow right through health (issues), so it don’t matter, it seems. You need a lot of breaks to go your way, but they’re on the right track.

“I think 73 wins took some years off my life. But like I said, they’re capable of a lot.”

Lest anyone think we’re speculating too early, let’s not forget that last season’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-led group finished 68-14 before winning it all. Only six other teams had won 68-plus games before them. The notion of them improving enough to go down as the best regular season of all time was well within reach based on the roster continuity and experience alone.

With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look at how this Thunder team compares to the Warriors squad that — finals ending be damned — set the standard for regular-season dominance.

Net rating

2015-16 Warriors: 10.6 (second to San Antonio’s 11.1)
2025-26 Thunder: 15.1 (Houston is second at 10.9)

We’ll see if the Thunder can keep this up, but that mark — FIFTEEN POINT ONE?! — is just bonkers from a historical perspective. Not only would it be the best of all time, but it would obliterate the record of 13.4 that was set by the ’95-’96 Bulls. Last season’s Thunder finished with the second-best mark ever (12.8).

The 73-win Warriors didn’t even have the best net rating in the league that season. Those Spurs — who featured the famed trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili alongside a 24-year-old Kawhi Leonard and 30-year-old LaMarcus Aldridge — went 67-15. Three of their 15 losses (in four tries) came against the Warriors.

Yet so far this season, these Thunder don’t have a team that’s pushing them even remotely as hard as those Spurs did the Warriors. The Detroit Pistons, the surprise team of the season, are three and a half games back in the standings (17-4), with the Los Angeles Lakers (15-5), Houston Rockets (13-5), Denver Nuggets (14-6) and Spurs (14-6) even farther behind. To call the Thunder the title favorite at this point is a massive understatement (not surprisingly, Vegas agrees).

Offensive rating

2015-16 Warriors: 113.5 (first; OKC second at 112.1)
2025-26 Thunder: 119.0 (fifth)

So … maybe Kevin Durant had a point about those Warriors and their offense after all?

When my recent interview with Green inspired his former Warriors teammate to chime in via social media on the debate about whether defense is more important to winning than offense, Durant reminded the masses that no team could fill it up like Golden State back then. In the 2015-16 season, in particular, the Warriors were the best of the bunch offensively (and “just” sixth on the defensive end; more on that below).

And the offense was???? https://t.co/SV6zo7dSUp

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) November 4, 2025

The league’s scoring has spiked since then, with the Thunder’s mark surpassing the Warriors’ but only good for fifth in the league. Per StatMuse, the Nuggets (123.7) and the Rockets (123.8) are on pace to have offensive ratings that would surpass anything that came before. Thus far, the Thunder have taken a marginal step backward on the offensive end compared to last season (when they had an offensive rating of 119.2 that ranked third in the league).

This comes with a major caveat, though: Jalen Williams, who earned his first All-Star berth last season while serving as OKC’s second-most productive player (21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks per game), has only played in three games after having offseason wrist surgery. In other words, they’ve done all of this remarkable regular-season work while missing a major piece of their proverbial pie.

In true Thunder form, however, they had a little-known second-rounder lying in wait to fill the void left by Williams for those first 19 games. Ajay Mitchell, the 23-year-old guard who was taken 38th out of UC Santa Barbara in 2024 and promptly traded to Oklahoma City (for the 40th pick and cash), had a coming-out party while Williams was gone. He averaged 15.9 points, 3.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals.

For SGA’s part, he’s been a tick better than he was during his MVP campaign — mainly from an efficiency standpoint. Here’s a glance at his line from last season compared to this one …

• 2024-25: 32.7 points (league-best), 6.4 assists, five rebounds, 1.7 steals, one block per game; 51.9 percent shooting overall, 37.5 percent from 3 (5.7 attempts per), and 89.8 percent from the free-throw line (8.8 attempts per).

• 2025-26: 32.8 points (second behind Luka Dončić’s 35.3), 6.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals, 1.5 blocks per game; 54.8 percent overall, 43.4 percent from 3 (5.1 attempts per), and 87.9 percent from the line (10.1 attempts per).

Defensive rating

2015-16 Warriors: 102.8 (sixth)
2025-26 Thunder: 103.8 (first; Detroit second at 110.6)

You know how you really know that the Thunder are absolutely loaded defensively? Because Gilgeous-Alexander — who has pretty good credentials on that end himself — can’t even tell you which of his teammates is the best stopper.

“That’s the hardest question — ever, of all time,” he said recently while discussing the topic. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

He went on to list six different players, from Williams to Alex Caruso, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren and Isiah Hartenstein. But along the way, he detailed why each one of them should be in the running for that unofficial title. In conclusion: It doesn’t really matter, so long as they keep shutting teams down.

The Thunder have slipped a bit defensively of late, as they’re allowing 105.7 points per 100 possessions in the last eight games (which is still first in the league during that span). They’re even stingier defensively than they were last season (when their defensive rating of 106.6 was the league’s best; the Orlando Magic were second at 109.9).

After 22 games

2015-16 Warriors: 22-0
2025-26 Thunder: 22-1

Those Warriors were still perfect at this point, but the Thunder have one blemish on their record so far: a 121-119 loss at Portland on Nov. 5. Their out-of-character defense was clearly the issue in that loss, but it didn’t help that Gilgeous-Alexander shot just 10-of-26 from the field (or that Mitchell had five turnovers).

Point differential

2015-16 Warriors: 10.8 (first; Spurs were second at 10.6)
2025-26 Thunder: 15.3 (first; Houston is second at 10.6)

Fourth quarters sat by their best player

Curry: 23 (of his 79 games played; 29 percent)
SGA: 10 (of his 22 games played; 45.4 percent)

For anyone looking to poke holes in the argument that OKC is bound to break the Warriors’ mark, look no further than this: The Thunder have played the weakest schedule in the league so far, so maybe the hype will prove to be hyperbolic.

“We haven’t talked about it yet,” Caruso told The Athletic about reaching 74 wins after they downed the Warriors. “I don’t know if we will, honestly. Our main goal is to win the championship, and I think that’s understood.

“(But) it would be sick. I’m not gonna lie. It’d be cool to have that record. But at the same time, if we’re close (to the record), we’re not going to chase that. If we have a chance to get rest and get healthy at the end of the season, or at some point during the year, we’re going to take that over chasing the carrot at the end of the stick that is 73 (wins).”