Thunder Continue To Break Records

The Oklahoma City Thunder have ensured consistency all season long due to being committed to defensive success. The Thunder have been a top 10 defense to this point in the 2022-23 campaign, which has proven to be a good foundation to build off of.

What that has allowed Oklahoma City to do is reach an entirely new level of competitiveness as the offensive side of the ball has slowly improved. Since the turn of the calendar year, the Thunder offense has been on fire, which has catapulted the team into the playoff picture in the second half of the season.

Since the beginning of January, the Thunder have put together the second best offense (120.7 offensive rating) in the NBA, as well as the second highest net rating (+8.2).

Over this stretch, OKC has shot the second highest 3-point percentage (40.1%) while producing the eighth most assists (26.6) and fourth fewest turnovers (11.8) per game.

Along the way, the Thunder have reached incredible milestones and broken several franchise records on the offensive end. In a game against the Boston Celtics just over a month ago, they scored a franchise record 150 points in a blowout win.

Shortly after, they broke a Thunder record for most assists in a game with 41 against the Indiana Pacers. Just a week later, Oklahoma City took things even further by setting a new season-high with 43 points in a quarter against the Atlanta Hawks.

Finally, in the Thunder’s most recent game against the Houston Rockets, they scored 153 points, breaking the record for points in a game once again. This included leading by as many as 45 points in the second half.

We’re at the point now where the sample size of offensive excellence needs to be recognized. This is a period of 16 games in which the Thunder have put together a top six record during the stretch.

This span alone has put the Thunder in a positive light offensively, inflating their statistics holistically over the entire season.

Almost 65% of the way through the season, Oklahoma City has removed itself from being in the bottom ten of categories such as field goal percentage, assists and 3-point shooting efficiency. These are all metrics that young teams really struggle with, especially the Thunder last season and early in the 2022-23 campaign.

As OKC enters the final stretch of the season, the team now has a top 15 offense and top 10 defense on the season to go along with the 11th best net rating.

The team overall has turned things around offensively, but there’s been a few key players that have individually contributed to that success. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey have both improved this season, while also figuring out how to best play off of one another. Lu Dort is starting to better understand his role and how he fits into the gameplan on offense with new weapons being added every season. Finally, Jalen Williams has been an instant contributor as a rookie which has allowed the Thunder to play small in many scenarios, which works to their advantage in most cases.

Now that the offense and defense are both ranked in the top half of the league, it will be interesting to see if that translates to the Oklahoma City Thunder being in the top half of the standings and earn a spot in the postseason.