The Oklahoma City Thunder are amid the best start to the regular season in franchise history and finished first in NBA.com's latest Power Rankings. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams led the Thunder to a Western Conference-leading 6-0 record. Beating teams such as the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City has beaten all six teams by 12+ points, which is convincing enough to leapfrog the champion Boston Celtics (5-1) for this week’s top spot in the NBA Power Rankings, per NBA.com’s John Schuhmann.
The Thunder’s impressive margins of victory stand out most from their remarkable winning streak, which was enough to earn them No. 1. Schuhmann led with this in his Power Rankings' write-up on Oklahoma City’s historic beginning.
“The Thunder aren’t just 6-0. They’re also the only team that hasn’t played a game that was within five points in the last five minutes. So, all six wins have been comfortable,” Schuhmann writes. “The Thunder have six comfortable wins despite ranking just 15th offensively. In five of their six games, they’ve held their opponent to at least 13 fewer points per 100 possessions than that team has scored in other games this season.”
The one exception was their 137-114 win against the Portland Trail Blazers, which was only the second time they hadn’t held a team to under 100 points this season. Still, the Thunder’s suffocating defense is the best in the NBA. OKC is leading the league by a mile with an impressive 94.9 defensive rating, first to the second-placed Golden State Warriors (101.9), per StatMuse.
Jalen Williams drops perfect reaction to historic 6-0 start
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams isn’t excited over two-week regular season accolades. He appreciates winning. Williams has been around long enough to know it’s not easy in the NBA, but he is keeping things in perspective, such as the Thunder’s challenging opponent in the Orlando Magic, who’s in the way of extending their streak.
Still, Williams appreciates the recent success, but his eyes remain on the 2025 NBA Finals.
“It’s cool, for sure. I don’t think we’ll get too ahead of ourselves. We got to play another good team. We’ll have fun on this three-hour flight back. Then, it’s kind of right back to it,” Williams said. “It’s definitely a cool thing to write your name in history and have this be our start, but obviously, we know what we want to do down the line.”
Williams and the Thunder will host the Magic at the Paycom Center on Monday.
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