{"id":392709,"date":"2026-01-06T23:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392709\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T23:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:24:15","slug":"defending-champion-thunder-figuring-things-out-after-6-6-stretch-follows-24-1-start-nanaimonewsnow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392709\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending champion Thunder figuring things out after 6-6 stretch follows 24-1 start | NanaimoNewsNOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday night\u2019s lesson was different, though. It was a humbling 124-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, a team that entered the night with a 12-23 record.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander said it isn\u2019t time to overreact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of games left in the season,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve won big. We\u2019ve lost big. Some nights are going to be bad. Some nights are going to be great. But regardless, you have to try to get better the next day. I think that\u2019s what allows you to, I guess you can say, be resilient. It\u2019s hard, obviously, but the best teams do it, and that\u2019s who we\u2019re trying to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange that a Thunder team with a 30-7 record and a 98-21 regular-season mark since the start of last season is drawing such scrutiny. But they are 6-6 since the incredible start to this season, and the losses to the Spurs made them seem closer to the pack.<\/p>\n

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said games like Monday\u2019s help his team understand what a game against them means for their opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you win the championship and you start the way we started, it comes with the territory,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it gives you a unique opportunity to really improve through that. \u2026 It\u2019s a competitive privilege to be a team that other teams are up to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder didn\u2019t rise to the occasion Sunday against Phoenix<\/a> or Monday against Charlotte. They lost consecutive games for just the second time this season.<\/p>\n

Daigneault finds value in the tests, even when the team fails.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt forces you to rise to that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you can, you really can get better and stronger as a result of that. And if you don\u2019t, you learn the lesson. So we got to learn the lessons in these ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the strangest developments has been how the Thunder have not been as effective since 2025 All-Star Jalen Williams has returned from wrist surgery. They are 18-2 without him in the starting lineup and 12-5 with him.<\/p>\n

Still, the team has the league\u2019s best record and leads the NBA in net rating and defensive rating. Gilgeous-Alexander was the Western Conference Player of the Month for December, and Chet Holmgren was the conference\u2019s defensive player of the month.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City has dealt with numerous other injuries throughout this season, with Holmgren missing several games. Even against Charlotte, the Thunder were missing starting center Isaiah Hartenstein and key reserves Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are among the league\u2019s deepest teams, so they usually find success with the next player. When that doesn\u2019t happen, the team reflects.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to approach it with the right level of gravity,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just brush it off and wipe the film and say on to the next, but you also can\u2019t overreact and allow the emotions of obviously losing a game nobody likes to lose \u2014 you can\u2019t let that take over either and pull you in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daigneault said he\u2019s not worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the wind\u2019s in your face, you\u2019ve got to endure,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have the resilience and the toughness to continue to compete, continue to stay together, continue to focus on the controllable execution things that help you change course. And so that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve always done and what we will do in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday night\u2019s lesson was different, though. It was a humbling 124-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,459,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-392709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392709","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=392709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}