The top team in the Western Conference meets the team with the worst record in the NBA on Monday when the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Washington Wizards.
The Thunder have won seven consecutive games that count in the regular-season standings, including back-to-back games since falling in the NBA Cup final.
Their latest success is despite a tough schedule that took them straight from Las Vegas into a back-to-back in Florida.
“These guys are monsters competitively,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said after his team’s 104-97 win in Miami on Friday.
Monday’s game is just the Thunder’s third in Oklahoma City since Nov. 20
With no player on the roster older than 30, the Thunder have taken a different approach to leadership.
While two-time All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has set the tone, Daigneault has made leadership a responsibility that is shared up and down the roster.
“We always say that the leader is the person doing the right thing and we really try to make leadership accessible to everybody through your actions, not necessarily your words ” Daigneault said. “We make leadership entitled to no one. … We’ve got a group of guys that walk the walk. They step up at different times. They hold each other accountable at different times. But we try to make the collective the source of leadership and that’s worked out well for us.”
Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams is coming off one of his best games of the season, a season-best 33-point performance in the win over the Heat. Williams hit four 3-pointers and make seven free-throw attempts after he was frustrated by not getting to the line at all in a win at Orlando one night earlier.
Daigneault said Williams had made “really good progress” of late.
The Thunder are looking for their first eight-game winning streak since January 2018.
On Sunday, Thunder standout defensive guard Alex Caruso signed a contract extension. Reports peg the deal as for four years and $81 million.
While Oklahoma City is rolling, the Wizards have dropped 20 of their last 22, including 11 consecutive games on the road. Washington’s lone road win this season came Oct. 28.
The Wizards are coming off a 112-101 Saturday loss at Milwaukee.
Second-year forward Bilal Coulibaly has taken a significant step forward in recent weeks.
Over the last five games, Coulibaly is averaging 19.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game and shooting 46.2 percent from the floor.
In the first 20 games of the season, Coulibaly averaged 11.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and shot 43.2 percent.
“It’s a huge challenge to do those types of things. Credit to him. There’s a physical stamina but there’s also a mental stamina (element),” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. “To be able to stay focused, locked in and then have the energy to do it on both ends, pretty impressive. He’s growing with that, not there yet for sure but he’s making strides.”
Monday’s game is the first of two between the teams this season.
The Thunder have swept the season series with the Wizards in each of the two previous seasons.
