Chet Holmgren, Aaron Wiggins Provide Scoring Cushion in Sunday's Win

Oklahoma City got back on track on the Sunday following Christmas, breaking a two-game losing stint with a home victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. A win that was much needed after a blow to the team's confidence on surface level.

Two losses to the San Antonio Spurs—three in the month of December—had a lot of discourse flowing on the Thunder's supposed dominance around the league, as Victor Wembanyama and his guys have had Oklahoma City's number thus far despite the boys in blue manufacturing a 26-5 record. That record being the best in the Western Conference and best in the league entirely.

On the surface, it may have illustrated a deeper picture of this team not being impenetrable. This Thunder team already knew that, though. Competing in this league means you play the best players in the world night in and night out, and Oklahoma City has gotten got by the same team now, three times to none.

It's left the defending champions to be able to analyze what it needs to improve at—just one of those things comes in the form of scoring by committee, not leaving it to its MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to put up 35-plus every single night.

That was evident in Oklahoma City's Sunday afternoon win over Philadelphia, mounting a 25-point win as the team reverted back into form with great help from Chet Holmgren and Aaron Wiggins.

Two guys who haven't quite been able to get things truly rolling. In the past five games, Wiggins had only accounted for five points or less in each contest, with his least minutes per contest played in the entire year coming against San Antonio. Clearly head coach Mark Daigneault sees a poor matchup for Wiggins against the Spurs, and the numbers do reflect that thus far.

And for Holmgren, his inefficiency and lack of scoring has also shined against the Spurs as well, shooting at a lesser clip than usual with his point totals coming in 17, seven and 10 in those games.

Those two were able to get back on track in the Thunder's win—and the return of Ajay Mitchell also boded well for the team, as the sophomore dropped 13 points as well.

The Thunder still remain the best team in the league to this point despite the recent issues, but it's a localized, team-specific issue—not an overall issue to this team's talent or resolve.