Thunder is on a roll, yet no one seems satisfied

As he slipped on the matching jacket to his gray sweatsuit, Collison gave a brief reminder of where this team was four years ago.

“I remember when we only won 20 games,” Collison said of the 2007-08 Seattle SuperSonics. “That still doesn't seem that long ago, and I'll never forget it.”

That's as close as anyone with the Thunder will come to relishing the current ride, which has the Thunder off to a league-best 20-5 start going into Thursday's nationally televised game at Sacramento.

Oklahoma City is on pace to win 53 games in a lockout-shortened 66-game season. In a regular 82-game campaign, the Thunder's current winning percentage would put it on pace to win 66 games — four more than Chicago's league-best mark a year ago and five more than San Antonio compiled as last year's Western Conference No. 1 seed.

Thus far, the Thunder is 9-1 at home, 11-4 on the road and 6-1 in games decided by four points or less.

Yet, no one seems satisfied.

“I don't look at it as a moment to enjoy. I look at it as my job to keep getting our team better and focus on the next game,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “At the end of the season, depending on how you do, that's when you can reflect back. We're off to a good start, and that's all we talk about. It's a good start, but you can't rest.”

Despite playing in the deepest conference and the league's toughest division — 12 Western Conference teams have at least 11 wins, and all five Northwest Division teams were above .500 and had at least 13 wins going into Wednesday night — the Thunder still led the conference's second and third seeds by 3½ games prior to Wednesday's action.

“There's a lot of basketball left,” Brooks quickly counters, “and there's still things that we have to get better at.”

But the Thunder's success can be seen beyond the standings.

Oklahoma City is ranked sixth in defensive field-goal percentage (42.7 percent), second in the league in blocked shots per game (7.6), fifth in opponent 3-point percentage (32 percent) and is tied for fifth in scoring differential (plus-4.72).