OKC Thunder Offense Finding Rhythm Of Late

The Oklahoma City Thunder have come out of their mid-season malaise to the tune of five straight wins. During a murky stretch in December, the Bricktown Ballers could not find a rhythm on the offensive end with clanked triples and a stalling half court offense hightening the lack of defensive intensity and compiling some rare losses in the past month.

Still, Oklahoma City sits at 35-7, including an 8-2 record in their last ten games looking the part of the title favorites that they have been cast into the entire 2025-26 campaign. The OKC Thunder are trying to buck the trend of parity in the NBA with the past six champions failing to repeat.

This week, the Thunder offense got back on track not only with timely buckets but by building back breaking runs in the second half of their three most recent games to earn double digit wins.

Thursday against Houston was a tough test, the Thunder battled one of the league's best defenses in the NBA. Especially when defending superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Denying him from getting to his spots and making him play in traffic all night. Though, his improved playmaking shined with plenty of hockey assists and putting his trust in his teammates.

It took an on the fly adjustment from the Bricktown Ballers who are so used to benefiting from their superstar's scoring chops in isolation and in the mid-range, to Houston making him get rid of the ball closer to the timeline than the rim.

"One of the things this group does really well is just take the lessons of experiences we go through and learn from them. That's one of those things that we practice a lot because we see it a lot, and tonight we probably won because of it," Gilgeous-Alexander said following Thursday's game.

The no. 2 scoring option for Oklahoma City, Jalen Williams, labored to score the ball with his new found downhill approach against a really good paint defense in Houston, he only totaled six points on 11 shots but was able to dish out ten assists against zero turnovers.

"Trusting guys to make shots, make the early plays, make the early passes. Over the course of time that does a lot. We've been saying recently too - we're always a couple shots away from breaking the game open," The All-NBA swingman detailed following the Thunder's win over the Rockets.

This goes back even deeper, such as Tuesday where Gilgeous-Alexander was able to get downhill thanks to the screen setting ability of key bench big man Jaylin Williams as he steps up in the absence of starting big man Isaiah Hartenstein.

"A combination of both screening and playing with pace. When you're able to get stops and play in the open floor, things come naturally... There's more space out there, and especially against a good defensive team you've got to play in space," Gilgeous-Alexander detailed following Tuesday's game against the Spurs.

The Arkansas big man discussed how easy it is to screen when setting up some downhill threats, and this is an area of his game that Williams has really improved on with his angles and the separation he creates giving Gilgeous-Alexander, the Santa Clara product and company just enough space to get to the rack.

"Our normal way playing basketball collisions, setting screens, gassing it off the screen. We have some of the best, if not the best, guys for downhill attacks. So when you play with guys like that, it makes it easier to set screens, because they get advantages easy," Back up big man Jaylin Williams said on Tuesday following his double-double against the Spurs.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are still sharpening their blades ahead of a pivotal postseason but this week has put them back into a rhythm as they attempt to build on this momentum.