A rare Thunder loss tightens the Western Conference race. The Spurs, armed with the tiebreaker, are closing in on the #1 seed.
Well, you can't win them all.
After ripping off 12 straight wins, the Oklahoma City Thunder saw their streak of one dozen consecutive victories come to a halt at the TD Garden. In a matchup of the 2024 NBA champions versus the 2025 NBA champions, the Celtics came back from a 13 point deficit to defeat the Thunder by a final score of 119-109.
Ultimately, it's one single loss in a long season that singularly does not mean much. But given the context of race for the #1 seed at the top of the Western Conference standings, it felt like a little more than one of 82. OKC is now only 2 games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs at the top of the West. But the Spurs own the tiebreaker, so Oklahoma City can only lose one more game than San Antonio the rest of the way.
Mark Daigneault was asked by KWTV News 9's Steve McGehee in the postgame press conference if he or the team were paying attention to the race in the West.
"The home team in the playoffs wins 65% of the time generally. So obviously there's a homecourt advantage. You'd love to have a homecourt advantage in as many series as possible," Daigneault said. "But the question becomes, what do you do with that? I'm not sure focusing on it or focusing on the standings is the way to do it. You have to continue to build the habits and continue to improve through the season. And continue to stay aggressive about learning your team. We'd rather be playing our best basketball and be the fully formed version of ourselves at the end of the season. And you look up and wherever you are in the standings at that point is where you are and you start playing from there."
As it stands, the Thunder are 57-16 and the Spurs are 55-18. That's the good news for Oklahoma City fans. The bad news? Each team's remaining schedule.
OKC hosts the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons (on the second night of a back to back), Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz. Then the Thunder hit the road for a tough West coast trip against the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers (second night of a back to back) and Denver Nuggets. OKC's final game is at home against the Phoenix Suns.
San Antonio visits the Milwaukee Bucks, host the Chicago Bulls, hit the road to face the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers (second night of a back to back) and Denver Nuggets. Then come home for a final four homestand against the Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets.
Oklahoma City has been the best team in basketball all season despite a myriad of injuries. Finally healthy, the team will have to gut out a tough final nine games to hold on to the #1 seed in both the West and in the overall standings. The Spurs have a much less daunting close to the season.
You can't win them all, but now that OKC got a loss out of their system, the champs are going to have to be nearly perfect down the stretch.