As the final moments ended in a 135-86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, jubilant Oklahoma City Thunder fans celebrated a team that went from winning 24 games two seasons ago to having the best record in the Western Conference this time around. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in one half of action, and the Thunder dominated a depleted Dallas squad on Sunday to secure the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Oklahoma City finished with the same 57-25 record as the Denver Nuggets, but owned the tiebreaker. The Thunder had not finished as the top seed since the 2012-13 season and had not been to the playoffs since the 2019-2020 season.
“We all know what got us to this point,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Just respond to that, keep our heads down and trust the work. We haven’t come this far for nothing. Just don’t go away from it.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said he is proud of a squad that started the season as the third-youngest team in the league.
“No year is guaranteed, so to be a postseason team, to be a one-seed, we don’t take that for granted at all,” he said. “We are incredibly excited. And now it’s just a matter of letting that opportunity rip.”
Daigneault now said that youth will not matter in the future.
“We are zero and zero when we wake up tomorrow morning for the playoffs,” Daigneault said. “So what we have achieved so far has no bearing on that. But I do think we’ve built great habits. We did it together. “Again, I have a lot of confidence, but not because of our age… but because of the way the boys have performed and the things they’ve built together.”
The Thunder started the day tied three-way with the Nuggets and Timberwolves for the best record in the Western Conference. It was the first time in NBA history that three teams entered the final day of the season with an equal lead over the conference. They were able to claim the top seed despite Gilgeous-Alexander missing six games late in the season with a bruised right thigh.
The Thunder will have to wait for the conclusion of the play-in tournament to find out their first-round opponent.
The postseason photo was posted elsewhere on Sunday. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Lakers will face the Pelicans for seventh place in the Western Conference, followed by the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings in an elimination game. On Wednesday, the Miami Heat travel to Philadelphia to decide the Eastern Conference’s No. 7 seed, followed by Atlanta at Chicago in a win-or-else matchup.
“Look, this is the best time of the year,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “These kinds of environments, the games, the context… you can’t expect it to be easy.”
Of the 20 postseason seeds, 15 were decided on Sunday, as were three of the four play-in matchups and three of the four first-round series that do not include play-in teams.
The latest order in the East: Boston, New York, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Orlando, Indiana, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago and Atlanta. In the West, the order from No. 1 to No. 10 is Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas, Phoenix, New Orleans, the Lakers, Sacramento and Golden State.
after newsletter promotion
The only first-round series held before Sunday was Clippers-Mavericks in the West. Now added to the list: Bucks-Pacers and Cavaliers-Magic in the East, along with Timberwolves-Suns in the West.
The games themselves did not bring much drama on the last day of the regular season. Of the fifteen games, only one was decided by one possession – and that was at Madison Square Garden, where New York scored a big victory. The Knicks held off Chicago 120-119 in overtime, a result that allowed them to surpass Milwaukee for the No. 2 seed in the East.
“A great regular season,” Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “Let’s get ready for the play-offs.”
One of Sunday’s biggest blowouts: Oklahoma City’s win over Dallas; Indiana stayed out of the play-in by beating Atlanta by 42; Sacramento defeated Portland by 39; San Antonio topped Detroit with 28 and Orlando – who could have entered the play-in with a loss – rolled past Milwaukee with 25.
Orlando won 47 games to clinch the Southeast Division and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
“So proud of them,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “There aren’t really many words for it. You’re talking about a group that’s been up and down, bounces back, is resilient… they’ve proven it. The stakes were high, they took matters into their own hands.”
The winner of the Heat-76ers will face No. 2 seed New York in the first round of the playoffs, and the loser will host the Hawks-Bulls winner on Friday night for the chance to play the No. 1 overall seed to meet Boston. The winner of the Lakers-Pelicans will get the No. 7 seed and will play defending champion Denver in the first round — the Lakers were swept by the Nuggets last season — and the loser of the Lakers-Pelicans will face the winner of Sacramento -Golden State for the right to be No. 1 Oklahoma City.
Golden State won a Game 7 in Sacramento last season to advance. The Warriors will have to win a play-in game there on Tuesday, which will have Game 7-type consequences.
“It will be a great atmosphere,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We were there last year, of course. They will have their crowd behind them. It’s nice not to get on a plane. So tomorrow we take the bus there, have a day to prepare and be ready to go.”