The Next Month Will Be A Big Test For The Young OKC Thunder Roster
With that in mind, a difficult test awaits. The Thunder haven’t had an easy route to this point, but January will take things to the next level. OKC will host the Boston Celtics in its first game of 2024, kicking off the month against the team with the best record in the league. A punishing schedule follows that for the rest of the month.
Although it doesn’t appear like it at first, this is most likely the hardest month on the Thunder calendar. The real challenge will come from the logistics, travel, and lack of sleep, not from every team Oklahoma City plays.
The Thunder will play 17 games in the 31 days of January. This consists of 11 away games and five back-to-backs. Even though OKC has been the league’s top away team thus far this year, this stretch will test that claim. In addition, tiredness from travel and a packed schedule with little downtime makes it hard to even win games against whom the Thunder are strong favorites.
With Oklahoma City playing the Minnesota Timberwolves twice and the Denver Nuggets once in the last twelve days of January, the month’s end is particularly important. The Thunder are now in a competition with both of those clubs for the top slot in the Western Conference.
The key to making the next 17 games successful will be depth. In the event of an injury, this will be particularly valid. However, even in the event of full health, Thunder rotations will likely need to be more varied and in-depth than usual in order to give players the proper amount of downtime. Fortunately, OKC is the second-youngest NBA team, so theoretically, they should be able to handle on-court tiredness better than others.
The Thunder will have played 48 games by the end of this month, which means that about 60% of the season will be finished. By then, February will have arrived, and there will only be a few weeks until the All-Star break and trade deadline.
Oklahoma City doesn’t need to win 70% of its games to have a good month, unlike what it has done thus far. Even a victory in ten of the next seventeen games would probably be enough to keep the Thunder afloat and in the top four of the West standings going into much-needed rest and the upcoming, slower months of the season.
Even while this Thunder has been excellent, by the end of the month, things might look very different. Oklahoma City might firmly establish itself as one of the NBA’s best teams, or it might fall in the standings and need to make up ground in the last minutes.