Crucial homestand begins as the Thunder fight to secure the Western Conference's top playoff seed against tough competition.
74 down. 8 to go.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are in a position we've possibly never seen before in NBA history. They have held on to the #1 seed in the Western Conference the entire season long while sustaining the second most injuries in the league and are finally fully healthy with only one tenth of the schedule remaining.. and yet they are at risk for the first time of losing the top seed.
Peeking at the West standings, OKC is two games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs with both teams playing eight more games the rest of the way. But the Spurs own the tiebreaker over the defending champs. And Oklahoma City has a much tougher remaining schedule.
If OKC wants to retain homecourt advantage throughout the NBA postseason, they can only lose one more game than the Spurs from here on out. A clean sweep of the current homestand would give the Thunder a big leg up and make the #1 seed much more attainable. Can Oklahoma City pull off an undefeated 5-0 at The Paycom Center?
OKC already beat the Chicago Bulls on Friday night to start off 1-0. It wasn't always pretty and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an incredibly rare off night, but a win is a win.
Next up is the New York Knicks on Sunday night. A nationally televised audience on NBC/Peacock will be tuning in for a game filled with plenty of star power. OKC beat the Knicks earlier this month, but it wasn't easy as the Thunder eked out a 103-100 win at Madison Square Garden.
Then the Thunder take on the East's #1 seeded Detroit Pistons on Monday night once again in front of an NBC/Peacock audience. While the Pistons will be without Cade Cunningham, Detroit is 10-3 without their star player. Add on to the fact that this will be the second night of a back to back for OKC, and this one is not a gimme even without Cunningham.
The fourth game at home will undoubtedly be the most hyped. Luka Doncic, LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers and a massive amount of MVP discussion and debate will land in OKC on Thursday night. This Prime Video exclusive will mark three straight nationally televised games for the Thunder. This one won't be easy, as the Lakers have been hot lately.
The final game of the homestand is the Utah Jazz and they will happily hand the Thunder a win on a silver tanking platter.
So can we expect the Thunder to play with more urgency to close the season? OKC head coach Mark Daigneault dropped one of his standard instant classic quotes when asked that question recently.
“If your sense of urgency increases based on the standings, then your sense of urgency wasn't high enough to begin with," Daigneault quipped.
Translation: OKC has been playing with a sense of urgency for 74 games and will continue to play with urgency over these final 8 games.