Thunder, Cavaliers lead conferences by big margins, but they're playing for more

The East is a runaway. The West is a bigger runaway. And the NBA hasn't seen anything quite like this in nearly 40 years. While all the attention is on your NCAA brackets this week (by the way, here are some tips for the men's and women's tournaments), it's safe to go ahead and pencil in Cleveland as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and Oklahoma City as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. It's not mathematically certain yet, but let's face it, neither of those teams are going to get caught. It's not outside the realm of realistic possibility that both the Cavaliers and the Thunder win their conference by at least 10 games. There have been plenty of instances of that happening in one conference over the years, but it hasn't happened in both conferences in the same season since Boston won the East by 10 games and the Los Angeles Lakers won the West by 11 games in 1985-86. Entering Monday, Cleveland led the East by 7 1/2 games. Oklahoma City led the West by 13 games — with 14 games left to play, so do the math. The West is over. The East is just about over. "It's the chemistry of the team," Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. "We've really formed a nice chemistry on the court. Great blend. Guys are playing to their strengths." The Thunder have earned the respect of the league — and, evidently, Las Vegas. BetMGM Sportsbook lists Oklahoma City as a big favorite to win the West and has the Thunder as the favorite to win the NBA title. The West is loaded, and OKC has a shot of being the first team to win that conference's regular season title by 15 or more games since Golden State in 1975-76. The Thunder are outscoring teams by 12.4 points per game. That's on pace to be the best margin in NBA history. And that's significant. This seems like the right time to point out that the next five teams on the league's all-time point-differential-per-game list — the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (who outscored teams by 12.3 points per game), the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (12.3), the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (12.2), the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (11.6) and last season's Boston Celtics (11.3) all won that season's NBA championship. "They are who they are," Milwaukee guard Damian Lillard said. "They defend, they move the ball, they've got a deep team, they do a lot of good things on both sides of the ball." It's interesting that Cleveland — still with the NBA's best record at 56-11, a team that has outscored opponents by "only" 11 points per game (which would be eighth-best in league history) and a team that has separate winning streaks of 12, 15 and 16 games this season — doesn't have that same respect from the oddsmakers. The Cavs not only aren't favored to win the NBA title — they're not even favored to win the East. According to BetMGM, they're the second choice in the East behind Boston. They're not exactly bothered by that; they think they know who they are, and that it'll be enough. Besides, they know they'll be judged by the playoffs. "We haven't done nothing yet," Cleveland guard Darius Garland said. "Regular season means something to us, but winning that ring, that's what really matters to us." By the way, big conference-standings margins typically mean that rings could be on the way. Only one team since 1986-87 won its conference by 10 or more games and didn't go on to capture the NBA championship; that would be Detroit in 2005-06, which won the East by 12 games and watched Miami celebrate the title that season. Boston won the East by 14 games last season on the way to the NBA title. Golden State won the West by 11 games in 2014-15 and won the title. Miami won by 12 games in 2012-13 and won the title. The Lakers won the West by 11 games in 2008-09 and won the title. Chicago won the East by 12 games in 1995-96 and 10 games in 1991-92 — and won the title in both of those seasons. The Lakers won the West by 10 games in 1986-87 and won the title. The Thunder are going to look to join that club. The Cavaliers have a shot of getting there as well. Neither team is playing for a No. 1 seed or for a wide-margin win in the conference race. They're playing for something bigger. "We're not letting go of the rope," Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson, said, "mentally or physically." ___ Around The NBA analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA during the season. ___ AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba