Thunder the best in West
The unexpected Oklahoma City Thunder clinched the Western Conference top seed ahead of the defending champion Denver Nuggets as the NBA regular season wrapped up on Monday.
The youthful Thunder rolled past the playoffbound Dallas Mavericks who rested Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving among others 135-86 to emerge from the trio of teams who went into the final day of action tied atop the West.
It marked the first time three teams entered their final games with identical records, all with a shot at the No.1 seed in a conference.
Thanks to the Thunder’s edge in their head-to-head record, the Nuggets’ 126-111 win over the Grizzlies in Memphis wasn’t enough and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who also had a chance, fell 125-106 to the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns snatched the sixth and final automatic playoff berth and will face the No.3 Timberwolves again in the first round.
In New Orleans, superstar LeBron James scored 28 points with 11 rebounds and 17 assists in his 112th career triple-double to propel the Los Angeles Lakers to a 124108 victory over the Pelicans and eighth place in the West.
The defeat dropped the Pelicans out of sixth place and they’ll host the Lakers in the play-in tournament on Wednesday (AEDT), with the winner advancing to the playoffs as the seventh seed.
The Golden State Warriors, with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green resting, beat the Utah Jazz 123-116 to lock up the last play-in berth. They’ll meet the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, who cruised past Detroit 123-95, with the winner of that play-in game earning a shot at the loser of the Lakers-Pelicans contest for the final Western Conference playoff berth.