The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Week 4 of the 2025-26 Season

Week 4 of the 2025–26 NBA season brought a continued red-hot start by the defending champs, an embarrassing upset, and a not-so-surprising coaching casualty. From OKC’s historic start to the New Orleans Pelicans organizational dumpster fire, here is the week that was. 

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder continue their dominant start, sitting a league-best 13–1 through Week 4. Led by reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has scored 30 or more points in six of the Thunder's seven games early this season, including three consecutive games, Oklahoma City has shown why they are heavy favorites to repeat as champions. The Thunder are just the third team in NBA history to open consecutive seasons 7–0, joining elite company with the 1963–64 Celtics and 1993–94 Rockets, both of whom won back-to-back championships.

*If you are an Atlanta Hawks fan, this gets bumped up to The Good!*

The Los Angeles Lakers rolled into Atlanta on a five-game winning streak, but left suffering a humiliating 122–102 blowout loss to a severely undermanned Hawks team on November 8. Atlanta was missing All-Star Trae Young with an MCL sprain, along with key players Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jalen Johnson, and Kristaps Porzingis. Despite having Luka Doncic drop 22 points, the Lakers trailed by 30 points at one stage and allowed the Hawks to score 68 first-half points, a season high for Atlanta. Mouhamed Gueye, making just his second start of the season, torched Los Angeles for a career-high 21 points. The loss exposed glaring defensive issues as Atlanta shot 45% from three-point range. It marked a classic trap game disaster, with the Lakers falling flat against a team they should have dominated. (Thankfully, they played the Charlotte Hornets two nights later to get back on the winning track.)

The New Orleans Pelicans made a not-so-shocking decision to fire head coach Willie Green after a dismal 2–10 start to the season, marking one of the quickest coaching changes in recent NBA history. Green's tenure ended after the team suffered three 30-point losses in their first six games, setting an unwanted NBA record. With star Zion Williamson playing just five games due to hamstring injuries, a similar story he has dealt with for four consecutive seasons, and the team ranking in the bottom five in both offensive and defensive ratings, the Pelicans' dysfunction goes far beyond coaching. Associate head coach James Borrego takes over as interim coach, but it seems unlikely that, regardless of who's holding the clipboard, the Pelicans are going to see much of a change in luck this season.