The defending NBA champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder have set the bar greater than ever for themselves, as reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren enter the 2025-26 marketing campaign. The Thunder will navigate the common season with a goal on its again, from very proficient groups such because the Denver Nuggets and the Cleveland Cavs. The key’s out on how younger and proficient Oklahoma Metropolis is because the crew.
OKC has the most effective odds of repeating as champions for the reason that Golden State Warriors in 2017. The Thunder reigned a lower above the remainder within the Western Convention all through the common season final 12 months, successful 68 video games earlier than posting a 12-4 report en path to the NBA Finals. Their NBA Finals sequence went the gap towards the Indiana Pacers. The Thunder acquired the champion’s remedy amidst the NBA’s regular-season schedule launch.
Oklahoma Metropolis will probably be featured in 34 nationally-televised video games, together with the affiliation’s respective Christmas Day and Martin Luther King Day showcases. Listed here are the top-5 must-see matchups all through the Thunder’s 2025-26 common season.
5. San Antonio Spurs on December 25 [ABC]
Led by All-Star Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs will look to make a big push into changing into a playoff crew in a aggressive Western Convention in 2025-26. Within the Thunder’s first Christmas Day recreation since 2018, the 2025 champions earned the respect to characteristic the Chet Holmgren vs Wembanyama showdown between the highest two picks from their 2022 draft class. The Spurs can check the place they stand towards the reigning champions.
4. Los Angeles Lakers on April 2 [Prime]
With All-Star LeBron James coming into the ultimate 12 months of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, who formally made Luka Doncic the way forward for its franchise, following a three-year extension, the stress’s on the 2 to guide their crew past the opening spherical of the playoffs. Of their first full season collectively, the Lakers will discover out in the event that they’re authentic title contenders in a matchup towards the Thunder on the Paycom Heart, with playoff implications most certainly in play.
3. Houston Rockets on October 21 [NBC]
The Thunder will cement their 2025 NBA title on Opening Night time towards Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets. Of their first ring and championship banner ceremony, it will be a historic evening in franchise historical past. Fittingly sufficient, Durant will watch all of it on the Paycom Heart. As soon as the face of the franchise, Durant left OKC to win titles with the Golden State Warriors. Now, with the extremely anticipated revamped Rockets, KD will get first crack on the champs.
2. Cleveland Cavs on February 22 [ABC]
After accidents derailed a promising Cleveland Cavs crew destined to succeed in the Japanese Convention Finals, the All-Star trio of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley is again to regain supremacy within the East. After two compelling matchups in 2024-25, one in every of which the Cavs handed the Thunder its solely loss to an Japanese Convention crew final season, this mid-season marquee matchup and potential NBA Finals preview is not going to disappoint.
1. Denver Nuggets on March 9 [Amazon Prime]
As the one crew within the Western Convention that pushed the Thunder to the brink in final 12 months’s playoffs, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets reloaded a roster whose depth rivals the champs’ second unit. They added rim safety by buying and selling for Jonas Valanciunas, three-point capturing in signing Tim Hardaway Jr., and perimeter protection by bringing again Nuggets champion Bruce Brown. The Nuggets additionally upgraded Michael Porter Jr. with Cameron Johnson, and are the Thunder’s greatest risk to stop the champs from going back-to-back.