OKC Tops Back‑to‑Back
Oklahoma City is carrying the league’s best record into the stretch, making them the first team since the 2019‑20 Bucks to hold the best record in consecutive seasons — a marker that positions them as a serious title contender. That standing was noted alongside talk of a potential historic repeat trajectory, which raises expectations for how OKC will handle playoff pressure. (x.com)
Oklahoma City just turned the last week of the regular season into a formality. A 128-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on April 8 locked up the National Basketball Association’s best record for the second straight year, with Chet Holmgren posting 30 points and 14 rebounds in the clincher. (apnews.com) That puts the Thunder in a club that has been mostly reserved for dynasties. They are the first team since the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 and 2020 to finish back-to-back regular seasons on top of the whole league. (sports.yahoo.com) Last season’s version was already historic by Oklahoma City standards. The Thunder finished 68-14 in 2024-25, the best record in the league and the best single-season mark in franchise history. (basketball-reference.com) This year was not a one-year spike. Associated Press reported on April 9 that Oklahoma City has now won at least 64 games in consecutive seasons, which puts this run alongside the 1995-97 Chicago Bulls and the 2015-17 Golden State Warriors. (apnews.com) The reason people take that kind of record seriously is simple: the regular season is 82 games long, so flukes usually die by February. If a team is still lapping the league in April two years in a row, it usually means the roster, the system, and the star at the center all travel well. (nba.com) The star is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the supporting cast is unusually young for a team sitting on top of the standings. Holmgren is 23, Jalen Williams is 25, and the Thunder are winning with a core that still looks closer to the start of its prime than the end of it. (apnews.com) That is why the pressure changes now. The SoFi Play-In Tournament starts on April 14 and the National Basketball Association playoffs begin on April 18, so Oklahoma City is no longer being judged against rebuilding timelines or future draft picks. (nba.com) Back-to-back best records can mean two very different things in league history. For some teams, like those Bucks teams, it proved regular-season dominance does not automatically buy a championship parade; for others, it was the front edge of a longer reign. (basketball-reference.com) Oklahoma City enters this postseason with the cleaner version of the argument. The Thunder are not trying to convince anyone they belong anymore; they already own the league’s best record again, and the only unanswered question left is whether April dominance survives into June. (espn.com)
