Thunder Season Review: OKC Overachieves Early

At times, the Thunder greatly overachieved last season.

From January 6 to Feb. 6, Oklahoma City went 8-8, an unimaginable record after seeing the product at the end of the season.

Not only did OKC finish .500, they strung together three wins in a row against New Orleans, New York and Brooklyn. They had a gritty overtime win over Chicago, and beat the Blazers and Suns in back-to-back games.

Of course, the Thunder roster had a different look. Al Horford and Mike Muscala were both stretching the floor for OKC. Hamidou Diallo was finding a rhythm in getting to the rack. George Hill was featured in the starting lineup.

Theo Maledon and Aleksej Pokusevski were still discovering themselves in the NBA, mostly off the bench.

The month-long stretch of solid play highlighted several positives for Oklahoma City. Mostly, the team was competitive. Thunder General Manager Sam Presti had options.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was already having a much better year than anticipated. In that stretch, he averaged 23.8 points, 6.4 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game. He also shot 55 percent overall and 42 percent from three-point land.

Horford only played nine games in that span, but scored 16.3 points, added 7.2 rebounds and dished out 3.0 assists per game. He also shot a whopping 49 percent from 3-point land on 5.4 attempts per game.

Thunder Season Awards: Most Improved Player

Season Review: Uncertainty to Start OKC Season

Of course we know what route Presti ended up taking, but there were times the 2020-21 Thunder squad looked like a fun play-in squad.