The Thunder are winning a ton of games, again. They don’t let wins, or losses, faze them much

MIAMI (AP) 鈥� The Oklahoma City Thunder should have been angry.

It was Saturday night. They had just lost to the Miami Heat 122-120. It was a game that saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander get called for a crucial offensive foul with 1:14 remaining (the NBA said a day later it wasn’t a foul), the Thunder waste a 12-point lead and referees missing a backcourt violation on Heat guard Norman Powell in the final seconds.

Their postgame reaction 鈥� the outward one, anyway 鈥� could be summed up thusly: Well, darn.

The defending NBA champions are winning far more often than they lose; a victory in Cleveland on Monday pushed Oklahoma City’s record to 36-8, the best in the league by a wide margin. The Thunder don’t get too riled up after wins, they don’t get too flustered after losses. They know what matters the most is what’s coming in April, May and June, and if they can find lessons along the way to sharpen their toolkits, that’s what matters.

鈥淕oing through the playoff runs, we鈥檝e been on the scene now for a little bit of time, enough time to be exposed to it and I think the guys have kind of learned the nature of that through the playoffs, really,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “It鈥檚 a series, you win the game, and everybody on the outside is going to talk about how it was a foregone conclusion that you won and that you鈥檙e going to run away with the series. And then the minute you lose a game, it鈥檚 the opposite. I think when you鈥檙e exposed to that enough, you learn not to trust it.鈥�

The Thunder started the season 24-1, then dropped four of their next six and six of their next 12. For a couple of weeks 鈥� gasp! 鈥� they looked vulnerable. They lost to San Antonio three times, including in the NBA Cup semifinals. Talk of 鈥渢he Thunder could break the NBA wins record鈥� became talk of 鈥渨hat’s wrong with the Thunder鈥� almost overnight.

They’re 6-1 since, the one loss in Miami by exactly two points.

鈥淭o have those 鈥榩roblems…鈥�” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, clearly breaking out the sarcasm about OKC’s perceived slump. “Yeah, I think the biggest compliment you can give them 鈥� and the thing that just stuns me 鈥� is how they can sustain that kind of success and have that kind of success with a young roster. Usually, there鈥檚 some kind of agenda with young players. And that鈥檚 fine.鈥�

The only agenda seems to be winning.

The Thunder are outscoring teams by 13.5 points per game this season, which is ahead of their NBA-record pace of 12.9 per game set last season. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 鈥� an All-Star starter, again 鈥� is the runaway favorite to repeat as the league’s MVP; sure, part of that is given the expectation that Denver’s Nikola Jokic may fall short of the league’s minimum-games requirement to be eligible for such awards, but Gilgeous-Alexander’s averages of nearly 32 points and just over six assists per game are certainly MVP-discussion worthy. They’re an NBA-best 20-2 at home and an NBA-best 16-5 on the road (the NBA Cup game was neutral site).

鈥淲e trust our process,鈥� Gilgeous-Alexander said. 鈥淲e trust our development.鈥�

It worked for them last year. Even with a 鈥渟lump鈥� this year, it’s working for them again. They’ve managed to be unfazed by the noise, whether it’s good or bad. They’re boring in that sense, in the best possible way.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that you don鈥檛 hear it. We don鈥檛 block it out. We can鈥檛 block it out,” Daigneault said when asked about expectations. “It鈥檚 the nature of the questions you get asked. It鈥檚 in your face constantly. It鈥檚 more about, 鈥楥an you contextualize it and can you maintain perspective with it?鈥� And we鈥檝e got a team kind of preconditioned to be pretty neutral.

“We try to maintain that environmentally around them with our approach and with the approach that they come in with every single day. But we鈥檝e also got guys that have a pretty healthy emotional thing that doesn鈥檛 really go too high or low.鈥�

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