Oklahoma City Thunder lock up No. 1 seed for third straight season
"It's impressive. Obviously, none of it means anything if you don't win in the end, and you know that."
For the third straight season, the Oklahoma City Thunder will finish as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. For the second straight season, the Oklahoma City Thunder will finish with the best record in the NBA and have home court advantage for as long as they are playing.
All that came after the Thunder easily handled the Clippers on Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, 128-110. And those two stats above just begin to touch on what the Thunder have done: ā¢ Oklahoma City is the first team with back-to-back best records in the NBA since the 2019-20 Milwaukee Bucks. ā¢ OKC is trying to become the first team with back-to-back best records in the NBA and to win the NBA title since Michael Jordan's Bulls in 1996-97.
ā¢ Only five other teams have had three or more consecutive seasons with a No. 1 seed ā most recently the 2015-17 Golden State Warriors ā and those five teams all won multiple NBA titles in that stretch. ā¢ This was the Thunder's 64th win.
If they win one of their remaining two games, they will become only the third team with back-to-back 65+ win seasons, joining the peak Jordan Bulls and the Curry/Durant-era Warriors (again, teams that won multiple titles). OKC didn't coast into this, it has won 19-of-20 down the stretch. It also has reached these records despite its second-best player, Jalen Williams, only playing in 33 games this season due to injury (plus the team has faced a lot of other injuries, having guys in and out of the lineup).