The Oklahoma City Thunder have a chance to do something the organization hasn’t done in over a decade…
…Finish No. 1 in the Western Conference.
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OKC Thunder
The 2012-2013 season was the last time OKC won their conference. Barack Obama had just kicked off his second term as President and the Devon Tower had just wrapped up construction across the street from the then-newly named Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Skip ahead 11 years, and the Thunder are once again battling for the top spot in the West. With a record of 48-20, the team is currently one game ahead of the second-place Denver Nuggets after Wednesday night’s 119-107 home win over Utah.
Head coach Mark Daigenault’s squad is on a roll heading into the tail end of the 2023-2024 NBA regular season. They’ve won 12 out of their last 15 games and currently rank in the top 5 in the NBA for both offensive and defensive rating.
The Thunder are also the best three-point shooting team in the league by almost an entire percentage. OKC shoots the three at a clip of 39.9%, with the second-place team (Boston) behind them at 39.0%. The team features seven players who are shooting above 40% from deep with two more at 39%.
OKC is also competing with Denver on another front as the season winds down. Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently in the midst of an MVP race with Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and has emerged as one of the top players in the NBA since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2019.
Now in year five, Gilgeous-Alexander is putting up career-high numbers in multiple categories including field goal percentage, assists and steals while averaging 31 points per game.
The potential MVP is joined by rookie center Chet Holmgren and second-year guard Jalen Williams, who are both carving out promising NBA careers early. Holmgren is already an elite rim protector and a force in the paint at 7-foot-1, and is being considered for the 2024 Rookie of the Year, while Williams is OKC’s second-leading scorer at 19.2 points per game.
Time will tell if the Thunder can hold onto the top spot in the conference. Finishing as the No. 1 seed would grant them a favorable playoff series with home court advantage, but only two players in the team’s young core have any postseason experience, that being Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort.
OKC continues the march to April on Friday (March 22) when they play the Toronto Raptors on the road at 8 P.M.