OKLAHOMA CITY — Former lottery pick Josh Giddey returned to Oklahoma City on Monday night. The reception was tame and warm. Giddey received positive pregame applause, and then the Thunder went about blasting his Bulls 145-117.
Giddey spent a few minutes postgame greeting former staffers and teammates in the home locker room. There’s zero reason for hard feelings. Giddey was delivered a greater opportunity to flourish in Chicago, and the Thunder were delivered a plug-and-play rotation piece, Alex Caruso, who has assisted in one of the most dominant regular seasons in NBA history.
Seriously. If the Thunder sprint through the finish line the next couple of weeks, they’ll sew up a strong case as one of the five best regular seasons of all-time.
Monday provided the latest check mark. Their win over the Bulls moved them to 28-1 against the Eastern Conference. That broke the record for the most cross-conference wins in league history. They could beat the Pistons on Wednesday and finish up 29-1. Or they could lose and still finish 28-2, better than these three previous record holders.
• 2015-16 Golden State Warriors: 27-3• 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks: 27-3• 1999-00 Los Angeles Lakers: 27-3
That’s the famed 73-win Warriors team, the greatest of those Lakers teams with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and a Mavericks team that had MVP Dirk Nowitzki but were unceremoniously eliminated in the 2007 first round.
So there are cautionary tales dotted into the record books that these Thunder now inhabit. It’s part of the reason there is such an outward reluctance from them to acknowledge special significance to what they are accomplishing.
“We don’t care not one bit about any of those records,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They mean something, but in the grand scheme, they don’t. We’re after one thing and one thing only. That’s what’s on our mind. Everything else we don’t care about.”
The Thunder’s 28-point win over the Bulls was their 49th double-digit win this season. With that, they passed the 2016-17 Warriors — Kevin Durant’s first and best season in the Bay Area — for the second most double-digit wins ever. Assuming they get two more (and the Pelicans and Jazz remain on the schedule), they’ll break the record of 50 set by the 1971-72 Lakers — you know, the team that employed prime Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.
“It’s cool,” Jalen Williams said. “That stat stuff is more for y’all than it is for us. That’s my only answer. Sorry.”
Their point differential is already the largest of all time: 13.3 points per game, eclipsing those West and Wilt Lakers (12.2) by a full point. Adjusting more to the variety of eras, they currently are tied with the best net rating of all-time: 13.4, the same output as the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
Those Bulls famously won 72 games, a storied NBA record that stood for 20 seasons before the Warriors reached the 73-win mark.
The Thunder can’t reach either. Their max, with seven games left, is 70 wins. Their remaining opponents: Pistons, Rockets, Lakers, Lakers, Suns, Jazz and Pelicans. There’s probably a loss or two in there, especially considering the lowered stakes for the Thunder and the possibility they rest their main guys before the playoffs. But they’ve been spot resting recently and are currently on a 10-game win streak. They’re 17-1 in their last 18 games.
“Every game, we understand you’re only going to get better or worse,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We don’t want to be a team that is coming (into the playoffs) dull because we’re coasting. We want to improve.”
Daigneault said this after their Saturday win over the Pacers without either of their centers.
“We improved tonight,” he said. “We haven’t played small like that in a very long time. We dusted that off tonight very well. That could be something we have to go to. That’s an example.”
If the Thunder lose once in their final seven games, they’d finish at 69 wins, putting them in an exclusive group of five: 1996 Bulls, 2016 Warriors, 1997 Bulls and those 1972 Lakers. It would be more regular-season wins than the Celtics have ever produced in a single season. Their franchise record is 68.
Thunder coaches and staffers are actively ignoring these feats, believing a tunnel-vision approach to the work is what delivered them to this moment.
But they broke character ever so slightly and briefly. Daigneault and veteran forward Kenrich Williams admitted that they acknowledged and slightly celebrated their 61st win in Sacramento last week. It set an Oklahoma City era franchise record. The Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook teams maxed out at 60 wins. Daigneault brought the team together after the game and highlighted the accomplishment.
“One of the things we want to practice is gratitude,” Daigneault said. “When you get to be a part of a team like this, that’s not permanent or guaranteed. The team deserves to celebrate when it has a special accomplishment. That doesn’t mean you stop there. … This is a great organization that’s had a lot of success in a short period. So we honor the players and staff that came before us.”
Also: “Some of these guys are young,” Daigneault said. “(Second-year guard) Cason Wallace has only played on 60-win teams. It’s important to give him some perspective. Not that the whole thing is about Cason. But it’s good perspective for a young team.”
The second-seeded Houston Rockets lost on Monday night. They are now 14.5 games back of the Thunder for the first seed. If that gap sits at 15 games at the end of the season, they’ll have won their conference by the widest margin of any team since the 1974-75 Warriors.
When Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren missed overlapping games due to injury this season, the Thunder went without a center. (William Purnell / Getty Images)
This hasn’t been done under pristine circumstances either. Chet Holmgren, their franchise center, broke his hip in the first quarter of their second loss back in early November. He missed 39 straight games. They went 32-7 without him. Holmgren has played only 25 games this season.
Isaiah Hartenstein, Holmgren’s capable replacement — and sometimes combo big — has missed 23 games. Their absences have overlapped. The Thunder rolled on without a center.
Their only loss to an East team, a thriller in Cleveland, included the Cavaliers going zone on them in the second half to slow their offense. On Tuesday, Daigneault called that a turning point, saying they’ve gotten better against zone since, including in a 20-point revenge win over the Cavaliers a week later without Holmgren or Hartenstein.
“They are the best team in the planet right now,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Carlisle delivered that quote on Saturday night after his Pacers were run out of the gym when the Thunder “dusted off” their small lineup. Two days later, they went double big and destroyed the Bulls with size. A couple of weeks ago, they rested all their starters against Portland and Philadelphia won by 18 and 33. Aaron Wiggins, seventh on their team in minutes per game, scaled up both nights and scored 30 and 26 points. He also had a 41-point night in February.
“It’s impressive with all the lineups we’ve had out there,” Holmgren told The Athletic. “But you could ask anyone in the locker room — especially if you ask Coach — (the historic regular season) is not what we’re focused on. It’s about the bigger picture. Who was the team that held these records before? The only ones you remember are the ones who did something with it.”
That something would be a title. Most in this realm have won it. Some did not. Holmgren is correct. None of this will matter in May. Their historic point differential and net rating won’t spook a veteran team. Their 28-1 record against the East doesn’t mean anything if they’re down 2-1 in a series, trying to solve a specific matchup against a specifically fierce conference opponent.
But it’s hard to ignore the impressive and exclusive company they keep with this kind of regular-season résumé.
(Top photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring against the Bulls: Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images)
