Road to title goes through OKC as Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander have homecourt

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder know how vital homecourt advantage can be in securing a championship. The Thunder won Game 7 at home in the Western Conference finals last year against Denver and Game 7 in the NBA Finals at home against Indiana to win the title. They clinched the Western Conference finals series against Minnesota at home in Game 5. This season, the Thunder held off the San Antonio Spurs in the race for homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Thanks to a league-best 64-18 record, the road to the NBA title once again goes through Oklahoma City, reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Paycom Center, where the upper levels are known as "Loud City." "It's extremely important," Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams said of earning homecourt. "Otherwise, I don't think everybody would be trying to get the records and stuff. It's just one of those things. Last year it saved us a couple times. ... If we don't have home court advantage, those can turn out totally different. So, home court is extremely important." Oklahoma City will host Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday against an opponent to be determined. The Thunder say one of the keys to their success has been to mentally separate this season from the last. They're not looking to repeat — they are trying merely to win this season's championship. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said the detachment from last year's title has a lot to do with why the team was so successful this season. "Last year's championship was great," Daigneault said. "We earned it. No one can ever take it from us. And we'll have the rest of our lives to be the 2025 champions. But it's also over, and completely mutually exclusive to this year's playoffs." There are plenty of reasons to believe this run will be similar to the last one. The Thunder were fifth in the league in scoring (119 points per game), second in scoring defense (107.9) and first with an 11.1-point average victory margin. Gilgeous-Alexander is well-positioned to repeat as MVP after averaging 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game this season. He shot 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from 3-point range. Chet Holmgren missed 50 games in the regular season last year. This time, he was mostly healthy and emerged as an All-Star. He averaged 17.1 points and 8.9 rebounds while finishing second in the league with 1.9 blocks per game. Williams, an All-Star last season, was injured much of this season. He has returned to form and has averaged 17.1 points per game this season. Center Isaiah Hartenstein and guard Lu Dort remained steady starters. The team's greatest strength might lie in its bench. Ajay Mitchell, Isaiah Joe, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins, Jaylin Williams, Cason Wallace, Kenrich Williams and Jared McCain are significant contributors. Of the Thunder players who participated in at least 30 games, 13 averaged at least 15 minutes per contest and 10 averaged at least eight points. The Thunder added McCain in a mid-season trade with Philadelphia, and he has averaged 10.4 points in 18 minutes per game since the deal. Daigneault showed willingness to go deep into his bench and shift lineups during last season's playoffs. He noted that he moved Wallace into the starting lineup during the NBA Finals last year, and said reserves such as Kenrich Williams, who is 13th on the team in minutes played this year, had key moments during last season's playoffs. "We're going to just try to find the best thing," Daigneault said. "But when you have a deep team, that's sometimes the best thing. We've got a lot of guys we believe in, and we assume that they're all ready to do whatever it takes to help the team at any time. And there's so many examples of that from last year's playoffs." The Thunder don't even know their first-round opponent — that will be determined Friday in the play-in tournament. Daigneault said he's fine with being unsure if the Thunder will play Phoenix, Portland, Golden State or the Los Angeles Clippers. "In between now and then, we focus on getting ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally ready, fundamentally ready for the first round, independent of who we play," Daigneault said. ___ AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA