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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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, center, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers guard Kris Dunn, left, and forward Derrick Jones Jr., right, defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, right, tries to get past Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war, in a message that may be intended to pressure the U.S. as uncertainty hangs over a days-old two-week ceasefire and further negotiations are expected in Pakistan.
The charts were released by the ISNA news agency, as well as Tasnim, which is believed to be close to the Guard. They showed a large circle marked “danger zone” in Farsi over the Traffic Separation Scheme, which was the route ships take through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil and natural gas traded once passed.
The chart suggested ships travel further north through waters closer to Iran’s mainland near Larak Island, a route that some ships were observed taking during the war.
The charts were dated from Feb. 28 until Thursday, April 9, and it was unclear if the Guard had cleared any mining on the route since then.
Oil rose again to above $97 a barrel and Asian stocks were trading lower Thursday on skepticism over the ceasefire. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 2.9% to $97.46 per barrel. It had fallen briefly to below $92 following the temporary ceasefire announcement. Benchmark U.S. crude was 3.7% higher Thursday at $97.94 per barrel.
Ship-tracking data from Kpler showed only four vessels with their Automatic Identification System trackers on passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first day of the ceasefire. However, that does not include so-called “dark fleet” vessels, which travel with their AIS trackers turned off. Many of those “dark fleet” ships carry sanctioned Iranian crude oil out to the open market.
U.S. President Donald Trump posted a statement insisting that his surge of warships and troops will remain around Iran “until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.”
Trump’s comments on his Truth Social platform appeared to be a way to pressure Iran.
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” Trump wrote.
He also insisted Iran would not be able to build nuclear weapons and “the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE.”
The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the ceasefire agreement, and world leaders expressed relief. But more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries after the deal was announced.
Israel also intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon on Wednesday, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed in the deadliest day of fighting there. First responders searched overnight for missing people still under the rubble after the deadly Israeli strikes.
The violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
Iran's parliament speaker said Wednesday that planned talks were “unreasonable” because Washington had broken three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire took effect and U.S. refusal to accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon. When the deal was announced, the prime minister of Pakistan, which served as a mediator, said in a social media post that it applied to “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”
A New York-based think tank warned the ceasefire “hovers on the verge of collapse.”
The Soufan Center said Israel's strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday added to the risk the deal would fall apart.
“Even if Lebanon was formally outside the deal, the scale of Israel’s strikes was likely to be viewed as escalatory, nonetheless,” it wrote in an analysis published Thursday. “Israel’s strikes can be understood both as an effort to drive a wedge between Iran and its proxies and as a response to being allegedly sidelined in the original ceasefire discussions.”
The White House said that Vice President JD Vance would lead the U.S. delegation to talks in Islamabad aimed at ending the war, which are set to start Saturday.
Iran’s negotiating team will arrive in Islamabad on Thursday night, the Iranian ambassador there said.
Reza Amiri Moghadam wrote on X that the “Iranian delegation arrives tonight in Islamabad for serious talks based on 10 points proposed by Iran,” without identifying who was on the Iranian team.
Those points include Iran enriching uranium, maintaining its control of the Strait of Hormuz and other issues that have been nonstarters in the past for Trump. The White House has repeatedly described the 10 points issued by Iran as false.
Moghadam wrote that the Iranians would come to Islamabad despite “skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by Israeli regime to sabotage the diplomatic initiative,” likely referring to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, which Israel and the U.S. have said wasn’t included in the shaky ceasefire.
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong, Zeke Miller in Washington and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla contributed to this report.
A rescue worker extinguishes burning cars at the site of an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Ali, 4, holds a toy horse next to the tent his family uses as a shelter after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Government supporters gather ahead of the funeral procession for Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, head of intelligence for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
FILE - Two police officers walk in front of an anti-U.S. billboard depicting American aircraft being caught by Iranian armed forces in a fishing net beneath the words in Farsi, "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
