After starting off the year 24-1, the OKC Thunder have fallen into a middling rut over their last eight games, seeing their first losing streak of the season while going 4-4 along the way.
Though there are plenty of factors that contributed to this downward trajectory, in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's eyes, the club's drop-off in production on the less glamorous side of the ball is what truly seems to stand out.
At least, that's what he seemed to suggest following Monday's 11-point win over the Atlanta Hawks, where he noted during his postgame media session that, over the past few weeks, what he and the team have been reminded of is that "we gotta get back to ourselves, especially defensively," for, as he put it, "that's where we hang our hat."
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander urges Thunder to lean into defense
Though the Thunder have not necessarily played overtly poor defense during their recent skid, Gilgeous-Alexander's remarks regarding a fall-off certainly are backed by the advanced metrics.
Yes, Oklahoma City has still found themselves leading the league in several key statistical areas, such as total steals (85) and deflections (167), throughout this eight-game stretch, but they've also clearly managed to let up in a number of other crucial aspects of defensive play, like opponent field goal percentage (went from 42.7 to 46.0), points per game (106.2 to 113.4), and second-chance points (11.9 to 16.5).
On top of this, their defensive rating as a whole has tapered off from an earth-shattering 103.3 to, since December 13, 110.5.
Sadly, this lapse in defensive productivity has not been offset by a surge in offensive efficiency.
In fact, it's been quite the opposite, as the Thunder are averaging a middle-of-the-pack 117.3 points per game and an abysmal 32.6 percent shooting from deep over the past three weeks and change.
Fortunately, it appears OKC may be turning a corner of sorts on the offensive end, as they just dropped a whopping 140 points on 54.1 percent shooting from deep while Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 on his own on 62.5 percent shooting from the field.
However, the defense clearly still seems to be having some issues. Even amid this two-game win streak, they've been letting up an average of 116.5 points per contest while allowing their opponents to shoot 43.3 percent from deep.
The Hawks, specifically, just dropped 129 points during their recent bout while shooting at a 46.3 percent clip from beyond the arc.
Perhaps publicly admitting that there's been a problem with their efforts and success-rate on defense will be the initial step toward finding a path back to their early season form.