The only thing to slow down the Oklahoma City Thunder this week was a couple of days off.
And perhaps the extra rest could help the team with the NBA’s best record.
The Thunder will find out when they visit the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.
They have been off since their Wednesday game, a 121-92 dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers, who won earlier in the week in Charlotte.
Yet Thunder coach Mark Daigneault believes there is no reason for his team to be content with a 12-1 record.
“We’re a better team today than we were 13 games ago,” Daigneault said. “The thing is we have the maturity to understand there’s 70 more games. And the rest of the league is going to continue to evolve and improve, and we have to do that to (keep) pace with the rest of the league.”
The Thunder own a four-game winning streak, with each of those victories featuring a margin of at least 14 points.
The Hornets played their past two games against the Bucks. Charlotte snapped a three-game losing streak with a 111-100 home win on Wednesday before falling 147-134 in overtime on Friday in Milwaukee.
Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges each scored 32 points for Charlotte in the latest game, but a big impact came from the return of LaMelo Ball to action. The point guard provided 16 points and 10 assists after missing the previous five games due to a right ankle injury.
“(Ball’s) competitive spirit on both ends of the floor, when he’s engaged, it becomes contagious,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said. “I’ve seen a lot more vocal leadership from him, which has been really helpful.”
The next test for Ball, who eclipsed the 5,000-point mark for his career in the Friday game, will be determining if he is available Saturday night, particularly considering his status appeared uncertain until close to game time Friday night. Charlotte was without reserve Liam McNeeley because of an illness, and center Ryan Kalkbrenner missed the game because of personal reasons.
The main producers for Oklahoma City have been consistent. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has topped the team’s scoring list in 11 of the 13 games, reaching the 30-point level 11 times on the way to averaging 32.5 points per game. He also leads the team in assists at 6.6 per contest.
Gilgeous-Alexander managed those numbers even without playing in the fourth quarter of seven games, largely because of the Thunder’s big margins.
Isaiah Hartenstein has led the Thunder in rebounding in all except for three games, logging an average of 11.2 boards per outing.
Isaiah Joe is giving Oklahoma City 16.3 points per game off the bench. He leads the team with 3.6 baskets per game from 3-point range.
While the mainstays are coming through, depth also has been a positive for the Thunder.
“We want to be as close to a 48-minute team as we can,” Daigneault said. “When you have a bunch of guys that perform when their numbers are called, then that helps.”
The Thunder like what they are getting from guard Cason Wallace, who has handled a variety of defensive assignments.
“He has taken primary matchups, high-volume, high-usage players,” Daigneault said. “He has passed those tests just in terms of execution. It just shows tremendous growth.”
–Field Level Media
