INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — For the third straight season, the road to the NBA title goes through Oklahoma City.

And this latest No. 1 seed has put the Thunder in some storied basketball company.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his defending champs became the seventh team in NBA history to finish with its conference's best regular-season record in at least three consecutive years when Oklahoma City wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming playoffs with a 128-110 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

The list of NBA teams who topped their conference standings in at least three straight seasons encompasses most of the greatest groups of the past half-century: The dominant Celtics teams of the 1970s and 1980s, the Showtime Lakers, the storied 1990s Chicago Bulls, the 2000s Lakers and the 2010s Golden State Warriors.

After comfortably holding off the Clippers for their 19th win in 20 games, the defending NBA champion Thunder (64-16) joined that elite group by clinching the top seed over San Antonio (61-19) and the league's best overall record.

The Thunder said they don't take this achievement for granted, even as they move on to chase bigger goals over the next two months.

“It feels better for sure, not only because we've had to weather a little more (adversity)," said MVP Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 20 points and 11 assists before sitting out the fourth quarter. “But just repeating something and doing it again is always a little bit harder. It's a little more challenging. The league gets better. Players get better. For us to still have the best overall record through those ups and downs speaks volumes to the team. ... We always say at the beginning of the season that no matter what happened, we have to earn what we get to make it to the playoffs and our seeding, and we earned the first overall seed.”

The Thunder have been a powerhouse ever since they broke through two seasons ago to claim the best record in the West with 57 victories. After winning 68 games last year, they've become only the third team in NBA history to win at least 64 games in back-to-back seasons, joining the 1995-97 Bulls and the 2015-17 Warriors.

But they all know the playoffs are a stiffer test, and Oklahoma City will attempt to become the first team to win titles after having the NBA’s best record in back-to-back seasons since Michael Jordan’s Bulls did it in 1996 and 1997.

“It's a great accomplishment,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “No two seasons are the same, and this season was a lot different experience. ... When you win the championship, that kind of hangs over you as a team the next year. Everybody — including ourselves — you judge yourself against that. It's incredibly hard to be present in the next regular season. I learned so much from this team, because their ability to come in every day and just embrace the day and the challenge that we had that day is really impressive, and it's why I think we had the season that we did.”

Indeed, Oklahoma City began this season with a 24-2 surge that had the basketball world wondering whether this was the best regular-season team in NBA history. Injuries slowed the Thunder to a mere 18-12 from mid-December to the All-Star break — but they've regained their ruthless momentum with a 22-2 rampage since then.

The Thunder were at least tied for first place in the conference for every day of the season, becoming only the seventh such wire-to-wire winner in league history. Golden State did it most recently in 2016.

“I thought we did a good job of fighting through everything we saw this year, and it’s paid off,” said Chet Holmgren, who scored 30 points against the Clips.

The injury problems might have prevented the Thunder from chasing the best single-season records in NBA history, but they also might have left Oklahoma City a bit fresher for the playoff challenges ahead: Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace are the only players to appear in 70 games this season.

The Thunder have two more games before several days off to prepare for another postseason run, and Gilgeous-Alexander thinks they'll be ready.

"We understand how to win, and the formula for winning," said Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored at least 20 points in his 141st consecutive game despite not making a free throw for the first time all season. “We understand that everybody doing that is the key to success. It's not the razzle-dazzle and the stuff that's cute. Understanding that getting the job done every night, and how to get it done, I think we've built that muscle more than anything.”

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INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Chet Holmgren had 30 points and 14 rebounds, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 20 points and 11 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder clinched the NBA's best regular-season record with a 128-110 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

Jalen Williams scored 18 points for the NBA champion Thunder (64-16), who will have homecourt advantage throughout the postseason in their title defense after holding off San Antonio (61-19), which is on an 18-2 run since February. Oklahoma City has won seven straight and 19 of 20 to earn the West's No. 1 seed for the third straight season.

Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points and Brook Lopez added 16 for the eighth-place Clippers, who had won seven of nine. Los Angeles is 35-18 since shortly before Christmas, but still must win one of its final two games to extend this once-moribund franchise's streak to 15 consecutive winning seasons.

The Clippers head to Portland on Friday for a crucial game. The winner almost certainly will finish eighth in the Western Conference, while the losers will slip to ninth, where they'll need two wins in the play-in tournament to make the playoffs.

While Gilgeous-Alexander scored at least 20 points in his record 141st consecutive game despite sitting out the fourth quarter, Leonard scored at least 20 in his 56th straight game. Leonard also remained on track to play in at least 65 games this season — his second-most in seven years with the Clippers, and enough to qualify for All-NBA consideration.

Holmgren scored 24 points in the first half and propelled the Thunder to an early 25-point lead. Oklahoma City hit 58.1% of its shots and thoroughly stifled the Clippers' offense, allowing no fast-break field goals.

Darius Garland sat out for the Clippers to manage his toe injury. He hasn't played in back-to-back games since Los Angeles acquired him from Cleveland in a trade for James Harden.

Up next

Thunder: At Denver on Friday.

Clippers: At Portland on Friday.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick downplayed his mid-game shouting match with Jarred Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, calling it a normal occurrence during a stressful time for his injury-depleted team.

Redick and Vanderbilt repeatedly exchanged words in a visible, vocal argument after Redick called a timeout and removed Vanderbilt from the Lakers' game against Oklahoma City just 16 seconds into the second quarter.

Redick said the argument was caused by “just a confluence of things," declining to be specific about what Vanderbilt had done wrong.

“Nothing personal with him,” Redick added. "Normal stuff from my end. I think for all of us, being undermanned, we’ve got to scrap and claw. We’ve got to all be on the same page. We've got to be great teammates. We've got to all play hard. I called a timeout to get him out of the game, and he reacted.”

After Redick called the timeout, Vanderbilt approached him on the court. When Vanderbilt became demonstrative, Austin Reaves — who didn't play due to injury — stepped between his teammate and the head coach, along with assistant coach Nate McMillan.

Vanderbilt continued the discussion when Redick sat on the bench after the timeout, and Redick made a dismissive gesture in Vanderbilt’s direction that appeared to irritate Vanderbilt further.

Vanderbilt didn’t return to the game after being pulled, and he left the Lakers’ downtown arena without speaking to reporters.

Vanderbilt made his only shot and had two rebounds and a steal during his 4 1/2 minutes of play, but he also missed three consecutive free throws right before the first-quarter buzzer. The defensive specialist has played inconsistent minutes for Redick this season, struggling to bring his offensive game up to a level that would allow him to be a rotation regular.

Los Angeles faced the Thunder without NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes due to injury, and the result was predictable: Oklahoma City routed the Lakers 123-87, sending them to their third consecutive loss after winning 13 of their previous 14.

The defeat was Los Angeles' first at home since Feb. 24, ending a 10-game winning streak. The Lakers (50-29) slipped a full game behind streaking Denver (51-28) for the third seed in the Western Conference playoff picture, while only the tiebreaker is keeping the Lakers above the surging Houston Rockets (50-29) in fifth for now.

Until Doncic and Reaves both were lost for the rest of the regular season — and probably longer — during the Lakers' blowout loss at Oklahoma City a week ago, they were surging toward a top-three seed with hopes of a significant playoff run. While Redick hasn't publicly given up on that chance, he acknowledged before the game that any attempt to play for better seeding “probably went out the window after the (first) OKC game.”

Redick didn't mince many words about his healthy players after the Lakers' lowest-scoring performance of the season — an effort that inexplicably included 17 missed free throws.

“We’ve got to find nine guys that are, like, all in on us fighting,” Redick said. “Whatever you’ve got to do to go out and fight and be all in on the team, we’ll find the nine guys. It’s a great opportunity for us over the next three games to find those guys.”

The coach said he called an earlier timeout to remove Rui Hachimura from the game because the forward “didn't do his job.”

Redick also said starting center Deandre Ayton has “had trouble catching the ball. We've had a bunch of plays for him. He's just had trouble catching the ball, and I don't know if that's the passing or him trying to get position. He just hasn't been able to catch the ball.”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points and eight assists, and Isaiah Joe hit six 3-pointers in the Oklahoma City Thunder's 123-87 victory over the injury-depleted Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

Jared McCain scored 15 points and Chet Holmgren had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the NBA-leading Thunder, who swept the season series against the Lakers with their sixth straight victory and 18th in 19 games overall.

The Lakers had their lowest-scoring performance of the season while playing without Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes, who represent a combined 94.6 points per game. Doncic and Reaves are out for the rest of the regular season, while the 41-year-old James sat for one game to rest his arthritic left foot.

Rui Hachimura scored 15 points and Drew Timme had 11 for the Pacific Division champion Lakers, who have lost three straight since losing Doncic and Reaves to injury last week in Oklahoma City.

Los Angeles had won 13 of 14 and was closing in on the third seed before losing Doncic, who is in Europe seeking treatment on his Grade 2 left hamstring strain.

Rookie Adou Thiero scored a career-high 10 points for the Lakers, who still kept the game even until midway through the second quarter. But Oklahoma City finished the half on a 23-5 run, and Los Angeles scored just 22 points in its next 24 minutes of play.

Lakers coach JJ Redick and Jarred Vanderbilt exchanged heated words after Redick called a timeout and removed Vanderbilt from the game 16 seconds into the second quarter. Assistant coaches and players stayed between the two until the lengthy exchange cooled down, and Vanderbilt didn't play again.

Up next

Thunder: At Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.

Lakers: At Golden State on Thursday.

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