NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA’s No. 1 Team
The NBA season is 82 games long and things change each day, week and month. However, thus far after half the season, the Oklahoma City Thunder has shown they are the class of the league and the No. 1 team in the NBA.
There are four teams in the NBA that are a step above the rest. Those four are Oklahoma City, the Los Angeles Clippers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat. Nevertheless, the Thunder has shown on repeated occasions that they have matured since their five-game loss in the NBA Finals last season against the Heat.
Oklahoma City is leading the league in winning margin, as they outscore their opponents by an average of 9.1 points per night. Last week the Thunder stumbled against the league’s worst the Washington Wizards, but have since rebounded with four consecutive wins to unseat the Clippers as the league’s top club with an overall record of 30-8. The Thunder is also the No. 1 team in the latest power rankings for the second time this season.
The Thunder has started to round into one of the top all around teams. Everyone knows the team owns the league’s best offense and is scoring at a clip of 105 points per game, but its defense has started to shine as well. Over their past seven games, the defense for the Thunder is allowing only 90 points per game by opposing offenses.
The Thunder currently leads the Northwest division by 7 games over the Nuggets and by 10 games over Portland. They lead the Western Conference and the NBA standings by a half game over the Clippers and two games over the Spurs.
The Thunder is second in the NBA in offensive scoring, 10th in rebounds per game, 18th in assists per game and 8th in points allowed on defense.
Kevin Durant is leading the way for the Thunder as he has since he started for the team five seasons ago. Durant is currently the third leading scorer in the league with an average of 28.9 points per game. He also is averaging 7.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.
Serge Ibaka the defensive specialist for Oklahoma City is leading the team in rebounding with 8.4 per game and blocks with 2.8 per game, while Russell Westbrook leads the team in assists per game with 8.4 and steals per game at 2.1.
The value of Kevin Durant was seen on Monday night when he scored 41 points for the team and had 0 turnovers. It was the first time this season that any player scored 40 or more points in a game and did not have a turnover. Last season that feat was accomplished only twice, once each by Tony Parker and Kevin Love.
Durant also teamed up with Westbrook to score 47 of the Thunder’s 51 points in the second half of their win against Phoenix 102-90.
