Oklahoma City is over .500 for the first time this year, thanks in part to a season’s best four-game winning streak.
Dennis Schroder just won the Western Conference Player of the Week and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander set and then matched a career-high 32 points against the Suns and the Clippers.
OKC has continued on after losing their top two stars off of last year’s rosters.
They’ve found a way to deal with injuries to some of their key players. And they’ve competed in almost every game.
With low expectations heading into the season, there may be a lot of people that are surprised that the Oklahoma City Thunder contending for a playoff spot in the West.
But Chris Paul isn’t one of them.
“Yup,” Paul told Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman after practice on Monday. “I thought we’d actually have a better record. I don’t know who I said it to at some point, but I said, no offense, but as long as I’m on the court I feel like we’ve always got a chance. I don’t care what the team is, what it looks like, who it is or whatever.”
As noted by Mussatto, the oddsmakers are siding with Paul.
As of the time of writing on Thursday, December 26, FiveThirtyEight gives Oklahoma City a 79% chance to make the postseason while ESPN’s NBA BPI Playoff Odds have the Thunder at 85.4%.
Don’t get too crazy though, both sites place OKC’s odds of winning a championship at less than .1%.
However, those numbers reflect the Thunder as they are now, with Paul, Danilo Gallinari, and Steven Adams. And with those players available to be traded, a roster shakeup in Oklahoma City could be imminent.
But Paul’s not worried about that right now. He’s focusing on the “small victories”.
“Everybody always tries to tell your story,” Paul said. “Everybody said I didn’t want to be here either. You know what I mean? I think for us it’s just about continuing to play hard and not get ahead of ourselves. Understand it’s a lot of season left. We just got above .500. You take the small victories.”
Oklahoma City will try and complete a perfect homestand with a win over the Grizzlies on Thursday night.
Tip-off against Memphis is at 7 p.m. inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.