The Oklahoma City Thunder finished the 2025-26 regular season with a 64-18 record, the best in the NBA and the franchise's best since the 2012-13 season [1]. The number clinches home-court advantage throughout the playoffs and cements Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the overwhelming MVP favorite — averaging 32.1 points, 6.2 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per game while leading the league's most efficient offense.

The Thunder's season is a case study in organizational patience rewarded. Three years ago, OKC was tanking. Sam Presti accumulated draft picks with the discipline of a bond trader and built a roster around Gilgeous-Alexander's two-way dominance, Chet Holmgren's rim protection, and Jalen Williams's secondary creation. The result is a team that led the Western Conference wire-to-wire and lost more than two consecutive games only once [1].

The regular-season record will mean nothing if the playoffs produce an early exit. OKC's skeptics — and they are vocal on X — point to the franchise's history of postseason disappointment and the question of whether a young core can sustain its performance in a seven-game series against experienced opponents.

That debate begins next week. The play-in tournament starts Tuesday, and the first round follows shortly after. The Thunder will face the winner of the 7-8 play-in matchup. Gilgeous-Alexander and the NBA's best regular-season team now face the only question that matters — whether 64 wins was the beginning or the peak.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos