Oklahoma City Thunder seal No 1 seed in West as NBA playoff picture is set

• OKC and Boston are No 1 seeds in West and East
• Knicks grab No 2 seed in Eastern Conference

As the final moments wound down in a 135-86 win over the Dallas Mavericks, jubilant standing Oklahoma City Thunder fans celebrated a team that went from winning 24 games two seasons ago to having the best record in the Western Conference this time around. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in one half of action, and the Thunder dominated a depleted Dallas squad on Sunday to secure the No 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Oklahoma City finished with the same 57-25 record as the Denver Nuggets but own the tiebreaker. The Thunder hadn't finished as the top seed since the 2012-13 season and hadn't been to the playoffs since the 2019-20 season.

We all know what got us to this point," Gilgeous-Alexander said. Just doubling down on that and keeping our heads down and trusting the work. We got this far for a reason. Just don't veer off of it."

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said he is proud of a squad that began the season as the third-youngest team in the league.

Nothing's guaranteed in any year, so, to be a postseason team, to be a one seed - we don't take that for granted at all," he said. We're incredibly excited. And now it's just a matter of letting it rip with that opportunity."

Daigneault said now that the youth won't matter going forward.

We're zero and zero when we wake up tomorrow morning for the playoffs," Daigneault said. So what we've accomplished to this point doesn't impact that. But I do think we've built great habits. We've done it together. Again, I have a lot of confidence, but not because of our age ... but because of how the guys have performed and the things they've built together."