OKC Thunder Sustaining Turnover Generation, Execution From Previous Season

A staple of the Oklahoma City Thunder's scoring production can easily be seen night in and night out on this rendition of the team.

The past two seasons, the Thunder has consistently been atop the NBA in turnovers produced and points generated from those turnovers. Now just three games and three wins into the 2025-26 season, the defending champions are still fulfilling that in its small sample size thus far.

Competing against and defeating the Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City has ran through a tough three-game slate and has came out 3-0 on the other end, picking up where the team left off from last season's championship run in almost every facet—and this time, they're kicking things off without star forward Jalen Williams.

But a great team pushes forward, sticks to its game plan and focuses on its strengths, even in the midst of a recovery process for your one of your best talents. As mentioned, this team has excelled at that, seemingly not skipping a beat despite two, drawn-out double-overtime battles to start the year.

The Thunder's leaned on its ability to take and ability to convert.

Against the Rockets on opening night inside the Paycom Center, Oklahoma City's one-point victory could not have been closed to managed without the team generating 25 Houston turnovers—and even more importantly, producing 28 extra points off those takeaways.

The story in Indiana wasn't too much different. This time forcing much less, around 14 turnovers on the game, led to 20 extra points—though, Oklahoma City matched that for the Pacers giving up 21 points off turnovers as well. Despite the Thunder not necessarily winning that battle, those 20 points proved to be the difference in the team's 141-135 win in front of Indiana's home crowd.

And in the team's third win on the season over the Atlanta Hawks, taking the ball away 17 times led to a season-high 29 points off turnovers in this one, ultimately defeating Atlanta and holding them to just 100 points in the game.

Kicking off the season, Oklahoma City isn't looking any different from last year—and with the addition of an improved Ajay Mitchell, plus awaiting the return of Williams, things could ramp up even further as the season progresses.