The Thunder earn the No. 1 seed. 1 for the third consecutive season, putting the champions in the company of the NBA’s elite
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — For the third straight season, the road to an NBA title passes through Oklahoma City.
And this latest No. 1 seed has put the Thunder in legendary basketball company.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his defending champions became the seventh team in NBA history to finish with the conference’s best regular-season record in at least three consecutive years as Oklahoma City clinched the overall top spot in the upcoming playoffs with a 128-110 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
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The list of NBA teams that have topped the conference standings in at least three consecutive seasons includes most of the greatest groups of the last half-century: the dominant Celtics teams of the 1970s and ’80s, the Showtime Lakers, the legendary Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, the Lakers of the 2000s and the Golden State Warriors of the 2010s.
After holding off the Clippers for their 19th win in 20 games, the defending NBA champion Thunder (64-16) joined that elite group by earning the top seed over San Antonio (61-19) and the league’s best overall record.
The Thunder said they are not taking this outcome for granted, although they intend to pursue bigger goals in the next two months.
“We definitely feel better, not just because we had to endure a little more (adversity),” said MVP Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 20 points and 11 assists before missing the fourth quarter. “But just doing something over and over again is always a little harder. It’s a little more challenging. The league gets better. The players get better. For us to still have the best overall record through those ups and downs speaks volumes to the team. … We always say at the beginning of the season that no matter what happened, we have to earn what we get to get to the playoffs and our seeding, and we earned the top seed overall.”
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The Thunder have been a powerhouse since breaking out two seasons ago to claim the best record in the West with 57 wins. After winning 68 games last year, they became just the third team in NBA history to win at least 64 games in consecutive seasons, joining the 1995-97 Bulls and the 2015-17 Warriors.
But everyone knows the playoffs are a tougher test, and Oklahoma City will try to become the first team to win titles after posting the NBA’s best record in consecutive 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 thing looms over you as a team the next year. Everyone, including ourselves, you judge yourself by that. It’s incredibly difficult to be around in the next regular season. I learned so much from this team, because their ability to come in every day and just embrace the day and the challenge that we faced that day is really impressive, and that’s why I think we had the season that we did.”
In fact, Oklahoma City started this season on a 24-2 surge that had the basketball world wondering if this was the best regular season team in NBA history. Injuries slowed the Thunder to just 18-12 from mid-December to the All-Star break, but they’ve since regained their ruthless momentum with a 22-2 run.
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The Thunder were at least tied for first place in the conference for every day of the season, becoming just the seventh such wire-to-wire winner in league history. Golden State did this most recently in 2016.
“I thought we did a good job of fighting through everything we’ve seen this year, and it paid off,” said Chet Holmgren, who scored 30 points against the Clips.
The injury problems may have kept the Thunder from chasing the best single-season records in NBA history, but they may also have left Oklahoma City a little fresher for the playoff challenges ahead: Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace are the only players to have played 70 games this season.
The Thunder have two more games before several days off to prepare for another postseason run, and Gilgeous-Alexander thinks they’ll be ready.
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“We understand how to win and the formula to win,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored at least 20 points in his 141st consecutive game despite not making a free throw for the first time all season. “We understand that everyone doing this is the key to success. It’s not the cheer or the nice things. Understanding that getting the job done every night and how to do it, I think we’ve built those muscles more than anything.”
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