This year’s Thunder team can’t let their situation get them into rough stretches. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder are no doubt in a rough situation, as they have been bitten pretty badly by the injury bug. Cason Wallace and Jalen Williams are expected to be out for the year, and Chet Holmgren is still out for multiple weeks. This hinders the team quite a bit, but it only gets worse when other players miss time due to rest or a minor injury. 

Although the season is still very young, we can see what an impact this has had. Oklahoma City has a solid record of 8-4, but this record is worse than the team’s past two seasons up to this point. The Thunder have fallen to some solid teams on the road, but they must make sure that they don’t get themselves into major losing stretches. 

OKC has found a way to bounce back so far, as after the team’s first set of back-to-back losses, it rattled off four straight wins in a row. Now, Oklahoma City has the opportunity to show once again how it can bounce back during Friday night's game against the Clippers. 

The team will have to lean on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander heavily, as it has so far, and will have to hope other key role players can play to their full potential. Players like Aday Mara, Jared McCain and Ajay Mitchell must keep expanding their game and must be positive factors in helping OKC win the games they are supposed to, instead of allowing the Thunder to drop more. 

The Thunder no longer have the luxury of having more stars than every other team they play, and will have to rely on their game rather than the skills of every player. Luckily, Oklahoma City’s defense is still one of the best in the league, only allowing opponents to score around 107 points per game. However, as mentioned, the key to this Thunder team is now consistency. 

The Thunder must win the games they are supposed to and fight for the tougher games. Then, when OKC drops a couple of games due to bad play or lack of depth, the team must find a way to bounce back so it doesn’t dig itself a hole. While it would be a nice luxury, OKC isn’t aiming for the best seed in the regular season; it's aiming for a big playoff run, and the team just has to make sure that it gets to the postseason.