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The Thunder roll past the Clippers and are 6-0 for the first time in OKC history

Posted on by Kennedy
The Thunder roll past the Clippers and are 6-0 for the first time in OKC history

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – With the same stale face, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander described the Thunder's latest performance as enthusiastically as the last few.

Like the point last season when OKC officially secured its return to the postseason. Or when it became the youngest No. 1 seed ever. Or when it won its first playoff series since the Kevin Durant era.

When he was told that the Thunder's 105-92 victory over the Clippers on Saturday made the score 6-0 – the team's best start in franchise history – SGA's lips didn't even quirk a grin.

“There are 76 games left,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with eyes that have seen so much in seven NBA seasons, but still not enough to his liking. “We haven't even come close to achieving what we need to achieve what we want to achieve, which is to make a big win.

“So yeah, it’s cool. We are not satisfied at all.”

Gilgeous-Alexander is cool about things like this. He wouldn't be very happy anyway; The Thunder were about an hour away from perhaps their grittiest win of the season, the showpiece of the second night of a back-to-back game that had them grasping at straws before the fourth quarter to pull away from a Clippers team that was losing each Home game.

Ugliness aside, it's worth putting the zero-and-zero thing aside and thinking about what the grueling victory means. Six games, six wins. Uncharted territory, even for this team's legendary predecessors.

The next best start for the franchise came in the 2011-12 season, when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook helped OKC to a 5-0 start. They reached the NBA Finals later that season.

However, get back into today's league-wide reach.

OKC remains one of two undefeated teams, joining the Cleveland Cavaliers after Donovan Mitchell kept hope alive with a game-winning goal earlier in the day.

The start of six games has delivered all sorts of results: a revelation of Denver's deterioration; Bulls and Hawks late game handles; confirming an identity against Spurs; the rediscovery of his offense in Portland; and now Saturday.

Saturday was far from his sharpest or OKC's most glorious win. But it had similar ingredients to some of the other results the Thunder have achieved during their undefeated run.

There were mostly confusing offensive phases that were unknown to fans just a year ago. There was the signature defensive phase – which can usually last a half, a quarter or even most of a game – that changed the game and made all offensive inconsistencies forgotten.

And of course the energy needed to pull out a win against a tough LA team, an equally fitting reason why OKC is off to this historic start.

Still, six games are just six games. To the world and to Chet Holmgren.

“I don’t think any team has ever hung a banner for a six-game winning streak,” Holmgren said.

More: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and OKC Thunder roll past the Portland Trail Blazers to improve to 5-0

Maybe the Intuit Dome is one of those gyms Isaiah Joe enjoys. He seemed to enjoy the goal on his debut. When OKC needed its offensive answers most, Joe was there with a timely 3.

He finished Saturday 4-for-8 from distance and scored 12 points, a few of those long-range handoffs that the crowd knew he would shoot and could kill any Clipper momentum.

And they did.

With just over nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter on Saturday, Joe nailed a deep transition 3 that tripped up the Clippers and brought OKC within 10 points. He drilled another two minutes later, helping OKC extend its lead to 13.

Joe had fired shots in bursts, mostly when necessary. On Saturday, he was one of the glaring reasons Gilgeous-Alexander had little work when he returned later in the fourth quarter.

But it was Gilgeous-Alexander who had led them there. Vintage Shai, the one who dictates defenders like dog orders and makes his fortune in the lanes and on the sidelines, showed up.

This version of him put up 25 points, nine assists, shot 50% from the field and went 9-for-9 from the free throw line.

It's not that he's been missed – Gilgeous-Alexander can readily fall back on his old habits at any time. Whenever it feels right. But the biggest story for the Thunder star this season has been his attempts to increase his 3-point volume. On Saturday, SGA went just 2 for 4 from deep, a result of some of the variables he was hoping for.

One is that the Clippers' defenders took him higher. LA employs junkyard dogs at its point of attack, so that was almost a given. But SGA needed 10 3s to start Week 1, perhaps a reason to get it early, as coach Mark Daigneault noted after the game. And for that, Gilgeous-Alexander celebrated on the sidelines and at the free throw line.

So for anyone wondering why Gilgeous-Alexander goes 3 after 3, sometimes in places he wouldn't have dared to go before this season, the All-NBA guard dismissed concerns with aplomb.

“I appreciate your concern,” he joked.

Gilgeous-Alexander will try harder, he noted. He felt like he could have done it even on Saturday, a night when OKC still finished with six double-digit scorers.

While Holmgren has lagged in his attempts and isn't entirely efficient, while Jalen Williams is still trying to find a consistent rhythm. As has been the case so often this season, Lu Dort was careful with his positions to enable the necessary breakthrough in the third quarter. Joe provided the needed play every now and then.

But as will probably be the norm, OKC forced 20 turnovers and watched the Clippers play Gilgeous-Alexander as he pleased.

The Thunder battled through their slow start like pneumonia, with small lineups, Gilgeous-Alexander and a stout defense still on their side. And so OKC remains one of the last few undefeated teams.

“It really tested us tonight,” Daigneault said. “If we wanted to win this game, that was the requirement.”

The goal was for teams to play him higher. The Los Angeles watchdogs did it, giving Gilgeous-Alexander his sixth victory.

Thunder vs. Magic

TIP: 8:15 p.m. Monday at Paycom Center (FanDuel Sports Network)

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