With several teams around the NBA still battling for playoff positioning, it doesn’t appear that the Oklahoma City Thunder are necessarily too concerned with where they finish.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Thunder are eighth in the Western Conference with a 44-3 record and a potential first-round matchup looming against the Golden State Warriors.
The Thunder have the same record as the San Antonio Spurs in seventh place and are just three games back of the Utah Jazz in fifth place. Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets are just one game back of the Warriors in first place with a crucial matchup between the two coming up on Tuesday night.
So, with five games left for most teams, the playoff picture in the West is still far from being finalized. As it currently stands, the Warriors or Nuggets appear to be the most likely opponent for the Thunder in the first round.
Terrance Ferguson says the team isn’t concerned one way or the other.
We’re playing basketball. Everybody gotta play home, everybody gotta play away. It doesn’t really matter who we play against. I know me or none of my teammates are worried about what seed we are at. We just know we’re going to the postseason with the right mindset and that’s just to win. It doesn’t matter who we are playing against.
The Thunder have posted a 2-2 record against the Warriors this season while they were swept 4-0 to the Nuggets. But, as past seasons have shown, regular season results — good or bad — typically don’t carry much weight in the playoffs.
Last year, the Thunder posted a 3-1 record against the Jazz during the regular season but lost in six games to Utah the first round of the playoffs. While the Thunder had some success against the Warriors, and were swept by the Nuggets, things drastically change in the postseason.
Despite some recent struggles, the Thunder have remained confident with the postseason just around the corner and it doesn’t seem like that will change in the coming days.
