OKC Thunder Has Learned From its Few Losses in 2024-25 Season

To say the Oklahoma City Thunder has gotten off to a great start to its 2024-25 campaign might be an understatement.

As of Dec. 16, the Thunder hold a commanding three-game lead at the top of the Western Conference with a 20-5 record. After its 111-96 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday, it will now face the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday in the NBA Cup final.

As impressive as its 57-win season was last go around, it seems that the strength of Oklahoma City is only continuing to grow — despite an injured Chet Holmgren for a good chunk of the year. A historic defense and another MVP case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have been the driving forces behind that.

The Thunder has only lost to a grand total of five different teams thus far, consisting of: the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Rockets. Whether it be before or after, it has beaten all of those teams at least once.

Earlier in the season, Oklahoma City took a loss to Golden State partly from the injury Holmgren suffered at the start of the game, a hurdle that it couldn't find a way to get over at that time. Two weeks later, it picked up an 105-101 win on the road.

In its first matchup against the Mavericks, the Thunder were handed the same fate that it did in the second round of the playoffs. Once they met again in NBA Cup action, Oklahoma City was finally able to get one up on them again in a convincing 118-104 win.

Those wins — along with breaking a 1-1 season record against Houston — proved that the Thunder has learned from the very few losses its sustained in the first couple months of the season. If a team beats it, expect the next matchup to turn the other direction.

Oklahoma City's resiliency has been another one of the many reasons as to why its found so much success, and if it continues on this trajectory, the No. 1 seed will have a clear holder before the playoffs begin.