Sunday afternoon, the OKC Thunder put their finishing touches on what has proven to be an exhilarating 2023-24 campaign, as they downed the visiting Dallas Mavericks in blowout fashion during their regular season finale by a final score of 135-86.
A game that saw Oklahoma City drop 82 points in the first half alone, Mark Daigneault's squad put forth a full-on team effort to breeze past their conference rival, as every member of the club managed to get into the scoring column while the collective shot a highly efficient 55.7 percent from the floor and 41.2 percent from distance.
Unsurprisingly, leading the charge right from the jump was none other than superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was directly responsible for 12 of the team's 38 first-quarter points and wrapped up his outing with 15 points and 6 assists in fewer than 16 minutes played.
Following the contest, the MVP candidate spoke glowingly about this Thunder team, and dropped an eight-word message to Bally Sports' Nick Gallo that should get all OKC fans excited as they now set their sights on the 2024 postseason.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drops powerful message regarding Thunder
"I think us being young, having a lot of legs... I think we can use our inexperience to help us, not knowing what it's going to be so we'll just play free," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We have a lot to look forward to."
Only for SGA 🔒 #ThunderUp | @okcthunder | @BallySports 📺 pic.twitter.com/60gyoFQqG4
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) April 14, 2024
Coming into the contest, the Thunder found themselves in a three-way tie with the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves for the top seed in the Western Conference standings, the first time "three teams, through 81 games, all have the same record and chance to capture the #1 seed in their respective conference."
Fortunately, with their win over Dallas, it's Oklahoma City who heads into the postseason as the number one team on the conference leader board, with the Nuggets and T-Wolves, respectively, trickling in behind them.
Now, they will be waiting patiently to see how the play-in tournament plays out to learn who their first-round opponent will be.