After taking home last year's Larry O'Brien Trophy and coming out scorching hot in their follow-up campaign in 2025-26, it goes without saying that the OKC Thunder are undoubtedly viewed as the crème de la crème of the NBA.
Of course, though certainly an enviable position to be in, boasting such a moniker isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Along with the glory of being the league's reigning champion comes the grueling realization that they now have a built-in bullseye imprinted on their backs.
This was articulated as point-blank as possible by Devin Booker Sunday evening when, after nailing the clutch game-sealing triple to hand Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company their sixth loss of the season, the Suns star made it a point to note that Oklahoma City is "everybody's target" this year.
"Those are the champs," Booker said. "They're seasoned, they're a really good team, so that's who you want to match yourself up against, and we all believed in it, and we came out with a big one tonight."
Thunder are widely viewed as public enemy number one in NBA
This has always been an unspoken mindset among ball clubs when squaring off against the reigning champs, regardless of which team or what year.
Booker simply just said the quite part out loud.
Needless to say, his Suns certainly got the job done against OKC this time around, as they pulled out a hard-fought 108-105 win thanks to a strong third-quarter surge and a tremendous defensive effort that held Gilgeous-Alexander to a putrid 8-for-22 shooting from the field.
This win also served as somewhat of a revenge game for Phoenix, as they fell just shy of getting the best of the top-dog Thunder during their late-November clash earlier in the campaign.
Following a historic 24-1 start to the year throughout their first 25 games, Oklahoma City finds itself sporting a middling record of 6-5 over its last 11.
While there are a number of factors that have contributed to this recent fall-off (injuries, several back-to-backs, etc.), the most glaring is the significant uptick in competition compared to the early stages of the campaign.
Since December 13, seven of the Thunder's 11 matchups have been against teams with winning records, while five have winning percentages in the .600 and over range.
Facing stronger competition is only bound to make the opposing team's best efforts more challenging for OKC to overcome.
With all this in mind, it's no surprise that all of these recent losses for the Thunder have come against serious playoff threats, with the Suns being the most recent top-seven seed to out-duel the defending champs.