Another year, another Northwest Division title for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While this isn’t the season that many fans expected it to be, it’s still impressive as it can be. With the Thunder’s Northwest Division championship locked up, it’s now time to move ahead and set expectations moving forward in the season.

For the third straight year, OKC is reigning supreme across the Northwest Division. This is the first time the team has achieved this feat. The last time they did? Four years in a row from 2011 to 2014, including eight of the last 16 seasons.

Thunder’s Northwest Division Title Sets Expectations for OKC

Oklahoma City’s division championship didn’t come easy this season. They had to deal with numerous injuries for most of the campaign. Even now, Jalen Williams has yet to play healthy. There are still players undergoing injury management, meaning they haven’t yet seen a Thunder team at full strength. If you are not impressed, they clinched the division title one day earlier than they did last season.

8 division championships in the last 16 seasons. 50% of the time! 4 of the seasons that they didn’t win they ended 2nd.

This is sustained success & should be celebrated. All of them didn’t end in championships but good basketball is important. https://t.co/mMA9fxtrGG

— Thunder Film Room (@ThunderFilmRoom) March 19, 2026

A Season Full of Challenges

Before they clinched the Northwest Division, the Thunder were initially setting a 77-5 record. That would have been the best record in league history, had it not been for the string of struggles and injuries they’ve been facing. In fact, they went 24 games straight without a loss before dropping to a 24-1 record later on. That’s the same as the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in 2016.

Of course, that would go on to become the best record in league history. But the Warriors didn’t win the NBA Finals that same season, ultimately blowing a 3-1 lead. Hopefully, the Thunder would avoid that same fate as they didn’t clinch a record-breaking win-loss tally. Still, this is an impressive season for the team, considering they had as many as five players out with injuries.

Jalen Williams
Isaiah Hartenstein
Alex Caruso
Ajay Mitchell
Cason Wallace

That’s 5 of OKC’s top 8 players out at the moment.

Thunder’s biggest issue right now is health.

— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) January 26, 2026

As of the time of writing, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren remain as the tolerable “healthy” core players in the squad. J-Dub is yet to return consistently. Isaiah Hartenstein is still on injury management, and we’re seeing a couple of Thunder players take a rest due to minor injuries as well. For OKC to secure the second-most division titles won since 2010 is definitely surprising, given the expectations they were facing.

What’s Next for OKC?

With 12 games left to play in the NBA season, the Thunder are actually set for the playoff chase. By now, the team is expected to play a few more games to at least clinch the first seed in the West. As of now, Oklahoma City sits 3.5 games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs for the top seed. This is a fragile state of affairs for the Thunder. Last season, OKC secured the first seed with a 16-game cushion.

This just means there will be extra play time for the Thunder’s stars. SGA will be gunning for more games under his belt until the final five games left at least. By that time, the best-case scenario for OKC would be seeing J-Dub finally on the court heading into the playoffs. There are still some hiccups worth solving for the Thunder, and now is the time to address them.

Ajay, Joe, McCain, iHart & Chet is going to go down as maybe my favorite Thunder bench line-up of all-time from a stylistic pov.

& it’s going to have an insane net rating so that doesn’t hurt either.

— Thunder Film Room (@ThunderFilmRoom) March 17, 2026

The final rotation will vary for most of the remaining 12 games. We all know how deep the Thunder roster can be, helping them secure the Northwest Division. Now more than ever, Mark Daigneault has some figuring out to do with the rest of the squad.

By now, OKC is sitting at the top of the West and will be hitting the 60-win mark by April 1st at the earliest. This just means they’re in for another huge playoff run, and it says a lot about their hopes for a title repeat as well.

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