The road to the NBA title passes through OKC while Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander have home court in an attempt to repeat
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder know how vital home-court advantage can be to securing a championship.
The Thunder won Game 7 at home in the Western Conference Finals last year against Denver and Game 7 in the NBA Finals at home against Indiana to win the title. They clinched the Western Conference final series against Minnesota at home in Game 5.
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This season, the Thunder held off the San Antonio Spurs in the race for home-court advantage during the playoffs. With a league-best 64-18 record, the road to an NBA title once again passes through Oklahoma City, reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Paycom Center, where the upper levels are known as “Loud City.”
“It’s extremely important,” Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams said of the home gain. “Otherwise, I don’t think everyone would be trying to get the records and stuff like that. It’s just one of those things. Last year it saved us a couple of times. … If we don’t have home court advantage, things can turn out to be completely different. So, home court is extremely important.”
Oklahoma City will host Game 1 of the first-round series on Sunday against an opponent to be determined.
The Thunder say one of the keys to their success has been mentally separating this season from the previous one. They’re not trying to repeat themselves – they’re simply trying to win this season’s championship. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said the gap from last year’s title has a lot to do with why the team has been so successful this season.
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“Last year’s championship was fantastic,” Daigneault said. “We earned it. No one can ever take it away from us. And we’ll have the rest of our lives to become the 2025 champions. But it’s also over, and it’s completely mutually exclusive in this year’s playoffs.”
There are many reasons to believe that this race will be similar to the previous one. The Thunder were fifth in the league in scoring (119 points per game), second in defense (107.9) and first with an average margin of victory of 11.1 points.
Gilgeous-Alexander is well positioned to repeat as MVP after averaging 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game this season. He shot 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from 3-point range.
Chet Holmgren missed 50 games in the regular season last year. This time he was mostly healthy and emerged as an All-Star. He averaged 17.1 points and 8.9 rebounds while finishing second in the league with 1.9 blocks per game.
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Williams, an All-Star last season, has been injured for much of this season. He returned to form and averaged 17.1 points per game this season. Center Isaiah Hartenstein and guard Lu Dort remained steady starters.
The team’s greatest strength may lie on the bench. Ajay Mitchell, Isaiah Joe, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins, Jaylin Williams, Cason Wallace, Kenrich Williams and Jared McCain contributed significantly. Of the Thunder players who participated in at least 30 games, 13 averaged at least 15 minutes per contest and 10 averaged at least eight points.
The Thunder added McCain in a midseason trade with Philadelphia, and he has since averaged 10.4 points in 18 minutes per game.
Daigneault showed a willingness to deepen his bench and change lineups during last season’s playoffs. He noted that he moved Wallace into the starting lineup during last year’s NBA Finals, and said reserves like Kenrich Williams, who is 13th on the team in minutes played this year, had key moments during last season’s playoffs.
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“We’re just going to try to find the best thing,” Daigneault said. “But when you have a strong team, sometimes that’s the best thing. We have a lot of guys that we believe in and assume that they’re all ready to do anything to help the team at any time. And there are so many examples of that from last year’s playoffs.”
The Thunder don’t even know their first-round opponent — it will be decided Friday in the play-in tournament. Daigneault said he’s fine with not being sure whether the Thunder will play Phoenix, Portland, Golden State or the Los Angeles Clippers.
“In the meantime, we’re going to focus on preparing ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, basically ready for the first round, regardless of who we face,” Daigneault said.
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