Thunder shrug off loss to Spurs, 'excited' to have challenge - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Minutes after the Oklahoma City Thunder's second loss of the season, some of the defending champions' veterans loudly and playfully chided injured rookie Thomas Sorber for failing to have towels in their lockers on time.

They laughed while declaring that this failure to properly execute a rookie duty would result in Sorber having to «spin» when the team returned home, referring to a «Wheel of Fortune»-style device at the team's practice facility that is used to assign an additional chore.

The Thunder were disappointed by their 111-109 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Saturday's NBA Cup semifinal — which snapped Oklahoma City's franchise-record 16-game winning streak — but were far from despondent.

«Personally, I think it's exciting,» Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. «It's easier to learn when you don't feel the way you want to feel. It stings a little bit more.

»We'll also see these guys [twice in the next five] games. So, it will be a good challenge. Kind of like an automatic test, almost like in school. You fail the test, you get to retest a couple days later. That's what it will probably feel like. Losing is where you find growth and where you really get better."

The Thunder, who had their preferred starting lineup available for the first time since their Game 7 win in June's NBA Finals, had matched the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors' record for the best 25-game start in NBA history by going 24-1 with a plus-17.4 average point differential.

«What are we, 24-2?» Thunder forward Jalen Williams said. «I mean, we can go home and just hang our hat on that or we can look at it as a way to get better and understand that we played against a playoff team that beat us and gave us a 2 on our