Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder have slipped a bit on the court after a stellar 24-1 start.
Philosophers have a way of making us think, rationalize, understand and apply the proper context to even the most complicated situations. Plato, Locke, Confucius and others often explained them in layman’s terms and the general response was a collective “hmmmm.”
As it relates to basketball — and specifically, the 82-game grind known as the NBA season — shouldn’t the words of Sam Presti ring somewhat logical, then?
“I think we learned that the sky falls on every NBA team at least two times a year … you will not play well for 82 games,” Presti said. “You may play horrible for weeks. Maybe a month. You don’t want to have several months, but every team, the sky fell on (them) this season and everybody freaked out.”
Presti is, of course, the general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder. That makes him more qualified to explain this subject than, say, Ralph Waldo Emerson, if only because Presti is a bit more in touch with the histrionics and history of hoop.
Here’s why his words have a coincidental ring to them: the sky has fallen on his team, which in turn has fallen to Earth.
Presti said this three years ago, yet that philosophy has proven to be prophetic, apt and timeless. Who knew way back in November of 2025, when OKC was busy roughhousing the league, that the Thunder would one day have a lesser record over a 12-game stretch (6-6) than … the Washington Wizards?
Showdown with Spurs looms
Tristan Thompson and David Fizdale give their thoughts on whether the Spurs are just a bad matchup for the Thunder.
After opening the season with pop and going 24-1 and inviting reasonable talk of winning the most games in NBA history or at least running away with the Western Conference, the Thunder seem … vulnerable? Is that the right word? Too strong?
The brakes have been pumped and the rest of the NBA is feeling a little more confident than before. The defending champion Thunder aren’t immune to flaws after all. Their tumble before their current three-game win streak caused a segment of the basketball populace to “freak out” to paraphrase Presti.
In due time, we’ll know whether this Thunder temperature is temporary or a symptom of a larger, soon-to-be-unveiled issue. Or maybe something in between.
Right on cue, here come the San Antonio Spurs (8 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock), who jumpstarted OKC’s fall back in mid-December. They brought the clouds down on the champs, and if nothing else, erased the aura. The Spurs are 3-0 against OKC this season and if they make it four straight Tuesday, that will certainly cause a collective hmmm.
The Spurs are emerging as a matchup hell for OKC if only because they bring the guard power with De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and rookie Dylan Harper. They boast the same level of depth as OKC, and once you add Victor Wembanyama to haunt Chet Holmgren, the Thunder need to update the scouting report on the No. 2 team in the West — and quickly.
But this goes beyond just the threat of San Antonio. Oklahoma City is wrestling with some potential truisms: Maybe the Thunder’s fast start was due to favorable scheduling. Maybe the rest of the league, and especially the West, is catching up. Maybe having Shai Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t enough.
Williams working to regain form
Jalen Williams’ stats have slipped a bit from his All-NBA level of 2024-25.
Maybe it’s also time to recognize the elephant in the room and ask if and when Jalen Williams returns to his All-NBA level.
He’s still trying to fully recover from a pair of offseason surgeries to his right wrist and gain full flexibility. Williams is shooting 28.1% on 3-pointers and averaging 17.6 points per game, down five from his breakout showing last season.
That’s not cause for drastic concern, and Williams at times manages to look solid during stretches. Still, opponents are seizing the opportunity; defenders aren’t doubling him anymore, waiting for him to re-earn that respect. When he sits on the bench, he wears a heated therapy glove on the hand.
“This injury is not something where you get it and then it’s `alright, you’re good to go.’ It’s something over the course of a year, a year and a half and having summers to really figure it out, where it’ll really be back to normal,” he said.
He added: “I just take it day by day. It’s gonna take time. What I have is not a normal … it’s not like a hundred people are running around with this injury. I’ll figure it out. I’ve got to let it do its thing and keep putting in the work that I do.”
Assuming that full recovery will happen this season, Williams gives OKC a higher ceiling, knowing that the three-man core with Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren will eventually be realized, in time for spring and the postseason.
Gilgeous-Alexander said: “If we’re going to win, we’re going to need his best version, and he knows that. We know that. And that’ll come around. He’ll get better as the season goes on.”
Also of note in OKC …
• Holmgren has sparkled defensively (1.8 blocks). Overall, though, his game hasn’t gone next level as he remains strictly a finisher at the rim (his 3-point shooting remains streaky).
• Lu Dort’s production has dipped at least offensively. His shooting (38.4%) is a career low and he’s getting fewer touches, yet still, defenses are leaving him open if necessary. Ditto for Alex Caruso (30.7% from deep).
• Depth and defense remain the secondary strong point of this team, after Gilgeous-Alexander. That said, the Thunder surrendered 130, 117 and 111 points in their three losses to the Spurs (and 124 last week to the Hornets, for what it’s worth).
• Gilgeous-Alexander remains on a Kia MVP level (31.9 points, 6.4 assists), still bamboozling opposing defenses off the dribble and with pull-up jumpers. But his trend of sitting out fourth quarters has diminished as OKC finds itself in a fight, more often than previously, down the stretch.
• Remember when the Thunder threatened to run away with the West and seemed a lock for the No. 1 seed? The latter may eventually happen. But the competition has crept closer. And while OKC has been unlucky with Williams’ wrist, injuries to Wembanyama and Nikola Jokić managed to slow the Spurs and Nuggets, respectively, and cooled OKC’s two most dangerous threats — at least for now.
This was the perfect mini-storm that appeared and caused the sky to fall. OKC’s upcoming schedule will see the Spurs, Rockets, a four-game road trip, a game in Minnesota (which beat OKC last month) and another in Denver. The Nuggets game coincides with when Jokić is projected to return from a hyperextended left knee.
And did we mention the Spurs are up next?
“It’s obviously a very good team who’s gotten the better of us recently,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Should be a fun one, should be competitive. We got to go out there and do the necessary things to win the game, and if we don’t we most likely will lose.”
That sentiment seemed unthinkable two months ago when everything was a positive blur in OKC. Even in the game when the Thunder were less than perfect, they still cruised. Even without Williams, they still dominated.
And now? To paraphrase Gilgeous-Alexander, if they don’t play to a certain level, they most likely will lose.
The NBA season is a six-month obstacle course, with sharp and wicked turns. Even the best teams hit a speed bump every year. Injuries, slumps, twists of fate or simply running into the wrong team at the wrong time — hello there, Spurs — can disrupt a flow and change conversations.
That’s what the Thunder are experiencing right now.
But next week or next month? Scripts can flip. Or not.
Here’s a positive outlook, courtesy of OKC’s in-house philosopher:
“If you have the right principles, the right mentality, the right temperament, you can work through that and become a better player and a better team,” said Presti. “Can you play through the lulls, can you block out the noise and not become part of the audience? Can you maintain the perspective of the competitor and not the observer? Because that’s your only solution.”
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at spowell@nba.com, find his archive here and follow him on X.
