As the Thunder near a return from the All-Star break, the team can make a bit of history later this week against the Warriors.

With a win against the Warriors on Saturday night in Oakland, the Thunder will become the first team to have defeated the Warriors three times during the regular season under Steve Kerr.

The Warriors have not lost to an opponent three times in the regular season under Kerr. In fact, the last time the team was defeated at least three times by another team occurred in the 2013-14 season when the Spurs swept the season series 4-0 over the Dubs under head coach Mark Jackson.

Currently, the Thunder are 2-0 against the Warriors this season. They blew out the Warriors 108-91 on Nov. 22 and then picked up another blow-out win in Oakland on Feb. 6. The win in Oakland marked the Thunder’s first regular-season win over the Warriors on the road in their last seven tries.

Under Kerr, the Warriors have a 25-3 record in the next meeting against a team that handed them a loss in the same season. Only the Grizzlies and Spurs, both in the 2016-17 season, and the Thunder this season have defeated the Warriors in two straight meetings in the same regular season.

The Thunder and Warriors will meet two additional times this season with the next meeting on Saturday and the final contest between the two teams on April 3.

Of course, having success against a team in the regular season doesn’t necessarily indicate future success in the playoffs. While that very well may be the case, at least one former player believes the Thunder can continue their regular-season success against the Warriors in the postseason.

“If you see the two games, OKC really took it out them,” Paul Pierce said recently in an interview. “This year in the Western Conference I think it’s going to be about the matchup. OKC is a bad matchup for Golden State. If they see each other in the second round, I’m not so sure they get by them.”

Pierce boldly predicted the Thunder will win the 2018 NBA Finals prior to the beginning of the season and doubled-down on his prediction in that interview.

“Houston? I don’t know if they can beat Golden State,” Pierce said. “But I think OKC can.”

While the playoffs are still a little bit away from starting, Thunder fans will surely be watching to see how the team performs on Saturday night.