Why Thunder feels 'unsatisfied' after 50th win of season
03/04/2025 12:52 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault guided his team to its 50th win of 2024-25, making franchise history as the fastest team to do so in 61 regular-season games. Led by the NBA's league-leading scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's 51 points in a 137-128 win against the Houston Rockets, Monday's win topped the 2012-13 Thunder team for quickest to reach 50 wins, 67 games.
Led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook after losing 4-1 to the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals, the 2013 Thunder finished with a franchise-best 60-22 regular-season record. With 22 games left in the regular season, this year's team is on pace to have the greatest regular season in franchise history.
However, Daigneault isn't interested in setting regular-season records. While reaching 50 wins isn't something he takes lightly, the Thunder head coach is keeping things in perspective.
"We're not comparing to other teams, and we're not comparing to last year," Daigneault said. "I just told the team I didn't think we played our best game. We need to be present with every challenge, and we need to take advantage of every opportunity that's in front of us. But it is also a testament that we can also be a little unsatisfied. On a night we won our 50th game, we can never take that for granted. It's hard to win 50 games in the NBA in a season.
"We obviously have a lot more we want to accomplish, but there's people that have been in a room, winning 22 games or 24 games, or scratching and crawling to get to 40. And so, we're going to be grateful for 50. We can be grateful for that, and we can be hungry at the same time; both can be true, and both are true for us," Daigneault concluded.
Perhaps the championship aspirations that inspired this year's Thunder team overshadow regular-season success. The 2013 Thunder failed to return to the NBA Finals, and Oklahoma City hasn't returned since. Mark Daigneault and the 2024-25 Thunder will look to change that before playing out the final quarter of the regular season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on scoring 51 in Thunder win vs Rockets
After Chet Holmgren revealed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's 51 points didn't surprise him, Gilgeous-Alexander had a blunt response to recording his fourth 50+ point game of the season.
SGA is focused on the process, which has led him to get used to scoring over 50 points occasionally.
"A little bit. You can say it's not as exciting as the first one, but it's more like getting lost in the process, just competing and playing the game you love," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Wherever that takes you, it takes you. It's going to be different for everybody."
The Thunder are 3-1 this season when Gilgeous-Alexander scores 50+ points.
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