{"id":355016,"date":"2025-12-18T00:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355016\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:54:10","slug":"despite-second-loss-okc-thunder-holds-firm-in-espn-power-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355016\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Second Loss, OKC Thunder Holds Firm in ESPN Power Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Oklahoma City lost its second game of the season last weekend, and once again, it came down to the wire. It took a perfect storm for this Thunder team to finally drop one \u2014 namely Victor Wembanyama\u2019s nearly flawless return, and Oklahoma City going ice cold from long range.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">After the dust had settled, it felt like social media was beginning to question the Thunder and their legitimacy. But it all sounds like comedy when you remember that Oklahoma City is 24-2 overall, and dominating nearly every single night. San Antonio didn\u2019t even really put a recipe for victory against the Thunder out to other teams \u2014 unless other teams also have a do-it-all 7-foot-5 superstar.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">The loss stings, but Oklahoma City will have a chance to avenge it soon enough. For now, the team\u2019s second loss of the season shouldn\u2019t damage its reputation any further. The Thunder are the standard in the NBA, the best team in the league, and nothing has changed.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">On Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47327985\/nba-power-rankings-all-30-teams-cavaliers-mavericks-76ers-eastern-conference\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN released a fresh set of Power Rankings<\/a>, and Oklahoma City held strong at the No. 1 spot \u2014 and rightfully so. This is a spot they\u2019ve held all season long, and a singular loss shouldn\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">\u201cIn the midst of the Thunder&#8217;s recent 16-game win streak, it suddenly felt reasonable to believe they had a chance to rip off an NBA trifecta \u2014 NBA Cup champs, regular-season wins record and NBA title,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47327985\/nba-power-rankings-all-30-teams-cavaliers-mavericks-76ers-eastern-conference\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Slater wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe Spurs put an end to that in Las Vegas, reminding the league that, while still the prohibitive title favorites, the Thunder aren&#8217;t invincible.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">\u201cOklahoma City is a streaky 3-point shooting team and went 9-of-37 on 3s in the semifinal loss to San Antonio. But it&#8217;s fortunate timing for the league. The Thunder will get the Spurs in a rematch twice next week, including a Christmas Day matchup in OKC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">Oklahoma City has shown tendencies of being a streaky 3-point shooting team in the past, but that doesn\u2019t really ring true whatsoever with this team. Currently, the Thunder ranks No. 6 in the NBA in 3-point percentage and ranks No. 9 in attempts made per game. There\u2019s no other way around it \u2014 they\u2019ve been a great outside shooting team this season. The truth of the matter is that they had a real off night against the Spurs, and it came back to bite them.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">They\u2019ve shown enough to remain atop the NBA standings, though, and will have a chance to continue to prove itself moving forward. As Oklahoma City takes on more of the NBA\u2019s top teams, the more respect they\u2019ll gain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">Over the next week, the Thunder will play Minnesota once before having a chance at revenge against the Spurs \u2014 squaring off against San Antonio twice. It\u2019ll be the perfect chance for Oklahoma City to bounce back on the national stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City lost its second game of the season last weekend, and once again, it came down to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-355016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}