Minutes after the Oklahoma City Thunder's second loss of the season, some of the defending champions' veterans loudly and playfully chided injured rookie Thomas Sorber for failing to have towels in their lockers on time. They laughed while declaring that this failure to properly execute a rookie duty would result in Sorber having to "spin" when the team returned home, referring to a Wheel of Fortune-style device at the team's practice facility that is used to assign an additional chore.
It's difficult to ring any type of alarm for a team that became only the third in history to open the regular season 23-1. The Thunder's league-best 104.1 defensive rating is more than six points per 100 possessions better than the Rockets' (110.7) in the second slot. That gap is equivalent to the canyon between second and 23rd. So there's nothing to complain about on the defensive end.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are 21-1 and the prohibitive favorite to repeat as NBA champions this year; they also might improve dramatically this offseason. That is because the Thunder own outright the Los Angeles Clippers' first-round pick in the 2026 draft. The dark provenance of that pick is a 2019 trade between these teams in which the Thunder shed Paul George and acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the rare "future podcaster" to "future MVP" upgrade.
Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein will be sidelined at least 10 to 14 days due to a right soleus strain, the team announced Saturday evening. The soleus is a muscle located in the lower part of the calf. Hartenstein sat out Friday's win over the Phoenix Suns due to what the team listed as right ankle soreness. The strain was discovered upon further evaluation.
For perspective, that's like having an eight-point lead with two minutes left in a game. I'm not sure whether people realize how deep OKC is. Last season, the net points metric we use to evaluate players was positive for everyone in the Thunder's rotation and a couple of guys outside of their rotation -- 12 team members in total. In contrast, the Thunder's Finals' opponents, the Pacers, had just five players positive in the regular season.
