Thunder, Spurs enter end-of-season stretch separated by just 2 games

OKLAHOMA CITY –

There’s one week left in the NBA regular season, with five games remaining for both the Oklahoma City Thunder (61-16) and the San Antonio Spurs (59-18). The top seed in the Western Conference is still undecided.

The Thunder hold a two-game lead over the Spurs, but San Antonio owns the head-to-head tiebreaker after beating Oklahoma City four times to one in the regular season.

Here is the remaining schedule for both teams:

OKC THUNDER:

4/5 – vs. Utah4/7 – @ LA Lakers4/8 – @ LA Clippers4/10 – @ Denver4/12 – vs. Phoenix

SAN ANTONIO SPURS:

4/4 – @ Denver4/6 – vs. Philadelphia4/8 – vs. Portland 4/10 – vs. Dallas4/12 – vs. Denver

Strength of schedule analytics on Tankathon rank OKC’s schedule as the 12th toughest and San Antonio’s as the 10th. A remaining home-and-home series with Denver makes the Spurs’ schedule a little more challenging, but they do end the season with four home games in a row and a night off between each game.

The Thunder face three road games against playoff teams in four nights, sandwiched between matchups with the struggling Utah Jazz and the play-in-bound Phoenix Suns.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a recently-named finalist for the NBA Sportsmanship Award, said after the team’s loss on the road in Boston that home-court advantage was “as important as everything.”

He pointed to Oklahoma City’s Game 7 wins at home during last year’s playoff run against the Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers. If the Thunder can win four of the last five games, it will clinch the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for the third consecutive season.

Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Wembanyama MVP debate

The latest, and final, NBA MVP Straw Poll released by ESPN has Gilgeous-Alexander as the clear favorite to win the award for the second consecutive season. He received 88 first place votes and 958 total points, ahead of Victor Wembanyama who received eight first place votes and 644 total points.

Wembanyama has separated himself as the clear runner-up ahead of Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Los Angeles’ Luka Doncic and Boston’s Jaylen Brown.