Athletic: Thunder 'Primed for Repeat'

The Athletic opened its 2026 playoff preview by picking Oklahoma City as the team most built to win the title again, while casting New York as a contender with more warning signs. (nytimes.com) That preview published Friday, April 17, one day before the first round began on Saturday, April 18. The same package included staff picks for all eight first-round series and projected Finals paths through both conferences. (nytimes.com; nba.com) The case for Oklahoma City starts with the standings. The Thunder finished 64-18, the best record in the West, with a league-best +11.1 point differential, then drew the Phoenix Suns as the No. 8 seed after the play-in. (espn.com; nba.com) The repeat talk also rests on what Oklahoma City already did last June. The Thunder won the 2025 NBA title, the first championship of the Oklahoma City era, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s league résumé now includes NBA Most Valuable Player, Finals Most Valuable Player and an NBA scoring title. (nba.com; nba.com; nba.com) New York enters the postseason from a different place. The Knicks finished 53-29, third in the East, and opened Saturday night at home against the sixth-seeded Atlanta Hawks after reaching the Eastern Conference finals last year. (espn.com; nba.com) The caution around the Knicks is not that they missed the playoffs; it is that their bracket is harder than their seed suggests. Atlanta finished 46-36, and the league’s series preview framed the matchup as New York trying to hold off a “surging” Hawks team led by Jalen Johnson, with Jalen Brunson carrying the Knicks’ offense. (nba.com; nba.com) The wider playoff picture helps explain why The Athletic centered those two teams. Boston is the East’s No. 2 seed at 56-26, Detroit claimed the conference’s top seed at 60-22, and San Antonio finished just two games behind Oklahoma City at 62-20, leaving little margin for a favorite that slips early. (espn.com; nba.com) The bracket is now set, and the forecasts are moving from theory to results. Oklahoma City starts its title defense Sunday against Phoenix, while New York began its series Saturday against Atlanta with the same question hanging over both teams: whether regular-season form survives four playoff rounds. (nba.com; cbssports.com)