You have to throw away a look at the post-match interview of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to realize what is happening at the Thunder. An “SGA” who maintains his seriousness amid the gesticulations of five teammates, the knowing smiles, an interviewer “forced” to utter an improbable war cry… And joy.
The joy of finishing in first place in your conference, after having cut up a Mavs team (+49 points!) deprived of its best elements. The Thunder ended their season with 57 wins and 25 losses, the same record as the Nuggets against whom OKC had the “ tie breaker “.
The Oklahoma City club had not finished in first place since the 2012-13 season, when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook teamed up, and had not reached the playoffs since the 2019-20 fiscal year. This franchise, which had recorded only 24 wins just two years earlier, is an example of a successful rebuild.
Better than the 2005 Suns
“ It's really surreal. We obviously play to win. It is (nicer) like that, but I think it's a matter of daily work and not worrying about the past or the future. It’s this mentality that allowed us to get here. So, yes, it feels good, there is something to be proud of. We still have a lot of work to do », notes “SGA”, the oldest holder of OKC… at 25 years old.
His team has an average age of just under 24 years. According to ESPN Stats & Informationshe became the youngest to finish first in her conference, doing better than Steve Nash's Suns in 2004-05.
“ I wouldn't say it's a celebration, but rather a recognition of the success of all the efforts we've made. We are not in this position by chance. There was a lot of dedication and work. But we are not rejoicing because we have not yet achieved the goal we set for ourselves. We therefore do not lose sight of our objective, we are focused », displays Chet Holmgren.
The latter is aware that this first place in no way foreshadows the Thunder's future journey in the playoffs. Because behind them, many teams and star players are used to long campaigns. However, the leader of the team is one of those who think that their inexperience could be favorable to them. And in any case, experience or not, this team is a hard worker.
Good habits adopted
“ We all know what got us here. You just have to try harder, keep your head down and have faith in the work. We came this far for a reason. We must not deviate from it. Nothing is guaranteed every year, so being a playoff team, being No. 1, we don't take it for granted at all. We are incredibly excited. All we have to do is seize this opportunity », thus completes “SGA”.
He and his teammates will have to wait a few more days before knowing their opponents in the first round. Considering the teams affected by the play-in in their conference (Pelicans, Lakers, Kings and Warriors), it will in all cases be a nice, even very nice piece.
And as their coach Mark Daigneault reminds us, once the final phases start, the counters are reset to zero: “ We will be at zero (victory) and zero (defeat) when we wake up tomorrow morning. So what we have accomplished so far has no impact on the situation. But I think we have adopted good habits. We did it together. Again, I'm very confident, but not because of our age, but because of the way the guys handled themselves and the things they built together. »
Tie breaker : when two teams have the same record at the end of the season, home advantage is determined by a series of successive criteria. The first is that of the results of the regular season meetings between the two clubs.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 74 | 34.3 | 53.6 | 35.8 | 87.3 | 0.9 | 4.7 | 5.6 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 30.3 |
| Jalen Williams | 70 | 31.6 | 53.9 | 42.7 | 81.4 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 1.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 19.2 |
| Chet Holmgren | 81 | 29.6 | 52.8 | 37.1 | 79.2 | 1.6 | 6.3 | 7.9 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 16.6 |
| Josh Giddey | 79 | 25.2 | 47.6 | 33.9 | 80.5 | 1.4 | 5.1 | 6.4 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 12.4 |
| Luguentz Dort | 78 | 28.6 | 43.9 | 39.5 | 82.6 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 11.0 |
| Isaiah Joe | 77 | 18.6 | 45.9 | 41.9 | 86.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 8.2 |
| Aaron Wiggins | 77 | 15.7 | 56.1 | 48.4 | 78.3 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.9 |
| Cason Wallace | 81 | 20.7 | 48.6 | 41.4 | 78.4 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 6.8 |
| Gordon Hayward | 25 | 17.0 | 44.0 | 53.6 | 69.4 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.1 |
| Kenrich Williams | 68 | 14.8 | 46.9 | 39.6 | 50.0 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.6 |
| Jaylin Williams | 68 | 13.0 | 41.2 | 36.4 | 80.5 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.0 |
| Tre Mann | 13 | 9.2 | 50.0 | 42.1 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.8 |
| Ousmane Dieng | 32 | 10.8 | 41.3 | 29.9 | 87.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 3.8 |
| Lindy Waters III | 37 | 7.2 | 45.9 | 41.3 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 3.4 |
| Vasilije Micic | 30 | 12.0 | 40.7 | 24.4 | 73.7 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.3 |
| Davis Bertans | 15 | 6.1 | 38.5 | 41.7 | 93.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 |
| Olivier Sarr | 15 | 6.5 | 57.9 | 33.3 | 66.7 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2.3 |
| Adam Flagler | 2 | 7.0 | 14.3 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Bismack Biyombo | 9 | 6.1 | 62.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| Keyontae Johnson | 9 | 7.4 | 31.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Aleksej Pokusevski | 10 | 6.0 | 25.0 | 18.2 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| Mike Muscala | 15 | 4.9 | 35.0 | 10.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
