OKC Thunder See One Tough Stretch in Regular Season Schedule

When looking through the freshly announced Thunder schedule, it is hard to find a stretch of tough games for the best team in basketball. Oklahoma City has a roster that blends depth and talent, which is head and shoulders above the rest of the league. However, there is one five-game stint that stands out above the rest.

The Oklahoma City Thunder face a tough stretch in February that include five playoff hopefuls. Mixed in with plenty of travel and a back-to-back, this will be a must-watch portion of the season for Oklahoma City.

OKC Thunder Face Tough Stretch in February

Feb. 1 @ Denver Nuggets (NBC)
Feb. 3 vs. Orlando Magic
Feb. 4 @ San Antonio Spurs (ESPN)
Feb. 7 vs. Houston Rockets (ABC)
Feb. 9 @ Los Angeles Lakers (Peacock)

This is a tough five-game stretch that features four out of the five contests plastered on National TV games, a trio of road games and each contest being against playoff hopefuls.

Four of these foes –– Denver, Orlando, Houston and Los Angeles –– are playoff locks on paper heading into this season. The spunky San Antonio Spurs have a good shot to capture a top-six seed to lock in an NBA Playoff berth, but if healthy, their floor is the NBA Play-in tournament. It is rare to see a five-game stint feature an entire crop of postseason-bound opponents.

Facing off with Denver battling the altitude will be tough, on top of playing against the second-best team in the West. A roster featuring matchup nightmare Nikola Jokic, a routinely fringe All-Star Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, newly acquired Cam Johnson, and a new-look rotation that includes much more depth than the Nuggets rostered a year ago. After these two teams met for a seven-game battle in the second round a year ago, these matchups will be must-see TV. Especially with this game being on the heels of two days off for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They should be fully loaded for this contest.

The Orlando Magic will be one of the most fun teams to watch this upcoming season. With two of the best defenses in the league going toe-to-toe, as well as the Magic rostering Paolo Banchero, who is poised to take another leap, Franz Wagner and newly acquired Desmond Bane to offer more of a scoring punch to last year's laboring offense.

Heading to San Antonio is always fun; these two teams have been linked together since the Thunder relocated to Oklahoma City. Though the Spurs are now looking to make a jump with a great young core headlined by Victor Wembanyama, who has a healthy on-court rivalry with Thunder rising star Chet Holmgren. De'Aaron Fox is facing off with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, rookies Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant seem ready to make a massive first-year impact.

Houston Rockets. Kevin Durant. Enough said. Just like the Nuggets, these are two of the best Western Conference teams with many ranking Oklahoma City, Denver and Houston as the top three in the NBA's left side conference. There is a reason this game is again on National TV after their opening night contest on Oct. 21 is shown on NBC.

The Purple and Gold are the envy of every NBA Fan, on top of the big market vs. small market squad, on the court, the drama is ready-made for TV. Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves and a revamped roster on one side. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and the deepest rotation in the league on the other.

This is going to be a challenging stretch for Oklahoma City and the only true grueling portion of the slate for the reigning champs. How they run this gauntlet will go a long way in determining the team's win total.