Thunder News: New record set, long streak broken heading into week two of season

Despite having been dormant for roughly five months, the OKC Thunder have kicked off the 2024-25 campaign similarly to how they ended their regular season run in 2023-24 -- red hot!

While we may only be three games into the year, this Oklahoma City squad is clearly playing like the team to beat out in the Western Conference standings. They are one of only four teams in the entire league to remain undefeated, while ranking first in defensive rating (90.8), third in net rating (18.4), first in blocks per game (10.0), and third in overall plus/ minus (19.3).

Though these metrics on their own are certainly impressive, when closely examining Mark Daigneault's club's start to the year from an overall franchise perspective, it's evident that they are producing at both record-setting and long-time streak-snapping levels.

Thunder set record, shatter long-standing streak in first week of season

Sunday night's performance against the Atlanta Hawks was something that should stand out to both fans and pundits for a multitude of reasons.

On the surface level, the Thunder undoubtedly flashed their dominance in a major way, as they saw four of their five starters drop over 15 points on the night while the entirety of the team played lock-down defense and held their opponents to just 39.6 percent shooting from the floor and 32.3 percent shooting from deep en route to their commanding 128-104 victory.

However, when digging deeper into the post-game analysis, OKC managed to accomplish two specific and highly notable feats.

With their, now, 3-0 record, it marks the first time since the 2016-17 season that the organization has been a part of such a stretch to start the season, snapping an eight-year-long streak that has only been recorded three times since moving out to Loud City back in 2008.

On top of this, one of the driving forces in the team's recent triumph over the Hawks in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander entered the franchise's all-time record books with his ridiculous stat line.

The superstar guard is the first player in Thunder history to log 35+ points, 10+ rebounds, 3+ steals, and 3+ blocks in a single game, as he wrapped up his 36 minutes of action on the night with a whopping 35 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks while shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent from distance.

Now, as noted earlier, the league is still in the infancy stages of this year's campaign and, in turn, the sample size when it comes to Oklahoma City's excellence is far too small to have fans believing that this level of domination from both an individual and overall team standpoint will last long-term.

Still, it is more than exciting to see the Thunder producing at such high levels during the beginning of what many believe could be a title-winning season.

Here's to hoping the good times roll right along into week two of the campaign!