Playoff seeding, rivalries, and future draft picks dominate Thunder fans' attention as the regular season finale unfolds.
The Oklahoma City Thunder "lost" to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night but came away with most OKC fans' desired result.
Ever since the Thunder clinched the #1 overall seed and homecourt advantage throughout the NBA playoffs, the focus for fans has pivoted from winning games to paying attention to Denver's playoff seeding, possible play-in tournament matchups and 2026 1st round pick stock watches.
The general consensus most pressing priority for most Thunder fans on Sunday night is not the outcome of the Oklahoma City vs Phoenix game taking place at The Paycom Center. Instead, Loud City eyes will be periodically drifting towards their phones and refreshing their NBA boxscore apps of choice to check out the Denver Nuggets vs San Antonio Spurs score. If the Spurs win, then the Nuggets will drop to the #4 seed and OKC will have to play their biggest rival and one of the Western Conference's three best teams in the West SemiFinals. If the Nuggets win, then Denver remains the #3 seed and OKC will only have to play one of the Spurs or Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
More concisely, Oklahoma City fans are rooting hard for Denver on Sunday to make their path to the West Finals much less difficult. The official injury reports that will release sometime Saturday afternoon will be very telling for each team's motivation in the season finale.
There is a scenario where the Spurs beat the Nuggets but Denver remains the #3 seed. But it involves the tanking Utah Jazz beating the Los Angeles Lakers at the Crypto.com Arena. In other words, we should just move on.
Another section of the standings that OKC fans will be keeping their eyes on is the #7-#10 seeds in the West. The Thunder's first round opponent will come from the play-in field of four. Phoenix is locked in at #7. Golden State is locked in at #10. After the Portland beat the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night, the Trail Blazers are one victory over the Sacramento Kings away from locking up the #8 seed and pushing the Clippers to #9.
Speaking of the Clippers, the Thunder own their 2026 1st round pick unprotected. Now that Ty Lue's squad is most likely trying to qualify for the playoffs from the ninth spot, the likelihood of that pick ending up in the lottery has increased dramatically. Kawhi Leonard would have to beat Steph Curry and a suddenly healthy Warriors team in LA and then beat either the Suns or Blazers on the road to qualify for the postseason.
Over in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers are also fighting for their playoff lives. And OKC also owns their 2026 1st round pick (top 4 protected). The East fringe playoff and play-in standings are a bit more complicated than the West, but the gist of it is that the Thunder have a chance to secure another late lottery pick or, at worst, a mid-teens pick from the 76ers.
There is one game remaining on the regular season schedule. And despite Oklahoma City having nothing left to play for on Sunday, Thunder fans have plenty of things left to pay attention to and cheer.