The OKC Thunder may have put up a valiant effort, but following Wednesday's bout against the Portland Trail Blazers, they have officially succumbed to a string of consecutive losses for the first time this season, as they fell to the Portland Trail Blazers by a margin of 20 and 10 points, respectively, on back-to-back nights.
With this, they have now dropped outside of the top four ranks in the Western Conference standings for the first time all season with their record of 8-4.
Fortunately, it seems that right after their recent demise against the Blazers, getting back in the win column shouldn't be all that difficult a task for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company, as their schedule eases up significantly over the next week and change of action.
Thunder schedule set to ease up following recent rough patch
Throughout these first 12 games of the season, the Thunder have already faced a number of highly competitive clubs, with seven, in particular, currently boasting records several games above .500.
Luckily, this strength in competition is about to see a complete 180 degree shift.
Yes, Oklahoma City will still be severely undermanned, what with their widespread injury woes involving several regular starters and core rotation players, but after their recent 118-108 loss to Portland, they'll be squaring off against a slew of bottom-feeding teams.
Right out of the gate, they'll be seeing the 2-8 LA Clippers on Friday night, followed up directly by a matchup with the even more hapless, one-win Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
They'll then see a bit more of a challenging face-off with the 7-5 Atlanta Hawks, though on the bright side, the contest will be played out at Paycom Center, giving them an innate home-court advantage.
From there, OKC's next three games will come against the Pelicans, Heat, and Pacers.
To put all of this into perspective, five of the Thunder's next six games will be coming against squads with losing records, many with win percentages below .350.
Compared to what the Thunder have been seeing as of late, this will undoubtedly be a welcome shakeup and, as a result, should only increase their odds of snapping their current losing streak and hopefully start up a new, more successful one in the process.
This two-game losing stretch marks just the sixth time since the start of last season that OKC has dropped consecutive games.
Fortunately, they haven't lost three in a row since the 2023-24 season. With recent history and, of course, a lighter schedule, the hope is that this stretch shouldn't be in danger of being snapped any time soon.
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