Jan 29, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) in the first quarter at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

What is the Toughest Month for OKC Thunder in 2025-26 Regular Season?

Originally posted on Oklahoma City Thunder on SI
By Rylan Stiles | Last updated Aug 25, 2025 5:00 PM ET

The Oklahoma City Thunder are attempting to defend their title as reigning champions. We enter a never-before-seen era in the NBA: Parity. The last seven champions have failed to make it out of the second round, some with sooner exits than that. With no repeat winner since the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors brought back the 2017-18 title.

However, very few of the former Champions have been set up as nicely as the OKC Thunder are. Not only does Oklahoma City feature a young, still developing roster, but they retain 99.2% of its roster from that title team.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the most talented and deepest team in basketball, so all signs point to the Bricktown Ballers capturing the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for the third straight season.

When looking around the recently released schedule for the Thunder, it is hard to find a difficult stretch in terms of quality of opponents. That is what life is like atop the league. However, one month stands out far above the rest when it comes to difficulty navigating a jam-packed slate.

From Christmas Day through the end of January, the Oklahoma City Thunder will play 29 games, 16 at home and 13 on the road. In that stretch, they have three rest advantage games and as many rest disadvantage contests. During that span, the OKC Thunder play three of their 13 back-to-back sets while traveling 15,239 miles. The Thunder have no stretch of consecutive off days from Dec. 28-Jan. 31.

This condensed stretch is set up by the NBA prioritizing the NBA Cup schedule with ample off days heading into Cup games...Until you get to the NBA Cup Championship, where, if Oklahoma City makes it, they will have a 14th back-to-back playing the Clippers at home the night after an NBA Cup championship game in Vegas.