For the third consecutive season, the path to the NBA championship runs through Oklahoma City.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champion Thunder have entered elite company. Wednesday night’s 128-110 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers secured Oklahoma City the No. 1 overall seed for the upcoming playoffs, making them just the seventh team in NBA history to finish with their conference’s best regular-season record in three straight seasons.
That list reads like a hall of fame of modern basketball: the Celtics dynasties of the 1970s and 1980s, the Showtime Lakers, the 1990s Bulls, the 2000s Lakers, and the 2010s Warriors.
After cruising past the Clippers for their 19th win in 20 games, the Thunder (64-16) claimed the league’s top record, edging out San Antonio (61-19) and cementing their place among the game’s greatest regular-season teams.
The Thunder said they do not take this achievement for granted, even as they move on to chase bigger goals over the next two months.
"It feels better for sure, not only because we've had to weather a little more adversity," said MVP Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 20 points and 11 assists before sitting out the fourth quarter. "But just repeating something and doing it again is always a little harder. It's a little more challenging. The league gets better. Players get better. For us to still have the best overall record through those ups and downs speaks volumes about the team. ... We always say at the beginning of the season that no matter what happened, we have to earn what we get to make it to the playoffs and our seeding, and we earned the first overall seed.”
The Thunder have been a powerhouse since breaking through two seasons ago to claim the best record in the West with 57 victories. After winning 68 games last year, they have become only the third team in NBA history to win at least 64 games in back-to-back seasons, joining the 1995-97 Bulls and the 2015-17 Warriors.
But everyone knows the playoffs are a stiffer test. Oklahoma City will attempt to become the first team to win consecutive titles after having the NBA’s best record in back-to-back seasons since Michael Jordan’s Bulls did it in 1996 and 1997.
"It's a great accomplishment," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "No two seasons are the same, and this season was a very different experience. ... When you win the championship, that kind of hangs over you as a team the next year. Everybody, including ourselves, judges yourself against that. It's incredibly hard to be present in the next regular season. I learned so much from this team, because their ability to come in every day and embrace the day and the challenge we had that day is really impressive, and it's why I think we had the season that we did.”
Oklahoma City began this season with a 24-2 surge that had the basketball world wondering whether this was the best regular-season team in NBA history. Injuries slowed the Thunder to 18-12 from mid-December to the All-Star break, but they have regained momentum with a 22-2 run since then.
The Thunder were at least tied for first place in the conference every day of the season, becoming only the seventh wire-to-wire winner in league history. Golden State did it most recently in 2016.
"I thought we did a good job of fighting through everything we saw this year, and it’s paid off," said Chet Holmgren, who scored 30 points against the Clippers.
The injuries may have prevented the Thunder from chasing the best single-season records in NBA history, but they may also leave Oklahoma City a bit fresher for the playoff challenges ahead. Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace were the only players to appear in 70 games this season.
The Thunder have two more games before several days off to prepare for another postseason run, and Gilgeous-Alexander believes they will be ready.
"We understand how to win and the formula for winning," he said, scoring at least 20 points in his 141st consecutive game despite not making a free throw for the first time all season. "We understand that everybody doing their part is the key to success. It's not the razzle-dazzle and the stuff that's cute. Understanding that getting the job done every night and how to get it done, I think we've built that muscle more than anything.”
