{"id":151474,"date":"2025-09-17T23:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151474\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:54:07","slug":"how-different-rest-days-impacted-2024-25-okc-thunders-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151474\/","title":{"rendered":"How Different Rest Days Impacted 2024-25 OKC Thunder’s Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder begins its 2024-25 regular season against the reigning No. 2 seed Houston Rockets in five weeks. Oklahoma City will play 82 games<\/a> between Oct. 21, 2025, and April 12, 2026, averaging a game every 2.12 days \u2014 slightly more forgiving<\/a> than last season.<\/p>\n

During the regular season, the 2024-25 Thunder achieved its highest winning percentage<\/a> in games after one rest day, going 44-7 (86.3%) with a +14.8 average point differential.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City scored a season-high 146 points against the San Antonio Spurs on March 2<\/a>. It allowed a season-low 83 points against the Phoenix Suns in an NBA Cup group-stage game on Nov. 13, 2024<\/a>. Both games occurred following a one-day break.<\/p>\n

The 2025-26 Thunder is scheduled to play 50 games with one day of rest, pending two more mid-December contests which depend on NBA Cup results.<\/p>\n

Last season, Oklahoma City struggled most on back-to-back games, registering an 11-5 record (68.9%) with a +6.2 average point differential. Still, its winning percentage with zero rest days was higher than every other Western Conference team’s overall record, as the Rockets went 52-30<\/a> (63.4%). The Thunder played at a 56-win pace without any rest.<\/p>\n

The NBA gave the defending champion a more favorable schedule overall, expanding its regular season slightly due to Opening Night and providing just 13 back-to-back contests in six months.<\/p>\n

Rest Days<\/p>\n

Regular-Season Record<\/p>\n

Average Point Differential<\/p>\n

Winning Percentage<\/p>\n

0<\/p>\n

11-5<\/p>\n

+6.2<\/p>\n

68.9%<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

44-7<\/p>\n

+14.8<\/p>\n

86.3%<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

9-2<\/p>\n

+11.6<\/p>\n

81.8%<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

4-0<\/p>\n

+18.5<\/p>\n

100.0%<\/p>\n

MVP and Finals MVP winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a whopping 38.1 points<\/a> on 66.7% true shooting, 5.6 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.3 blocks in 11 appearances with two days of rest.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander’s lowest numbers across the four splits: 31.3 points (three or more rest days), 5.5 assists (two rest days), 4.8 rebounds (one rest day), 47.6% field-goal shooting (zero rest days) and 36.1% 3-point shooting (one rest day). <\/p>\n

All-NBA and All-Defensive member Jalen Williams averaged his most points<\/a> (23.5), rebounds (5.9) and assists (5.6) on back-to-backs for the third straight season. He shot 106-for-196 (54.1%) on twos and 30-for-80 (37.5%) on threes throughout these games.<\/p>\n

Big man Chet Holmgren averaged his most minutes<\/a> (30.3), points (16.3) and assists (3.3) with zero days of rest. However, his plus-minus trended up when he received longer breaks.<\/p>\n

The NBA postseason does not schedule back-to-backs, meaning the Thunder played 14 of 23 playoff games with one rest day. It racked up 11 wins, including series clinchers against the Memphis Grizzlies on April 26<\/a> and the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rest Days<\/p>\n

Playoff Record<\/p>\n

Average Point Differential<\/p>\n

Winning Percentage<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

11-3<\/p>\n

+7.1<\/p>\n

78.6%<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

4-2<\/p>\n

+7.5<\/p>\n

66.7%<\/p>\n

6+<\/p>\n

1-2<\/p>\n

+16.0<\/p>\n

33.3%<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City played three home series openers after week-long breaks. It thumped Memphis by 51 points on April 20<\/a> but lost on last-second jumpers against the Denver Nuggets<\/a> and Indiana Pacers<\/a>, resulting in a sky-high point differential with a losing record.<\/p>\n

The 2024-25 Thunder tallied positive winning percentages and point differentials across all imaginable situations, making rest a trivial variable in the process.<\/p>\n

Want to join the discussion? Like\u00a0Thunder on SI<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook and\u00a0follow us on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also\u00a0meet the team<\/a>\u00a0behind the coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder begins its 2024-25 regular season against the reigning No. 2 seed Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-151474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}