{"id":68015,"date":"2025-05-31T11:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T11:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/68015\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T11:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T11:58:09","slug":"best-fans-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/68015\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Best fans in the world’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Eastern Conference finals shift from New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden<\/a> to Indiana\u2019s Gainbridge Fieldhouse<\/a>, Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City lies in simmering wait, building to a boil ahead of a forecasted eruption Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Thunder<\/a>\u2019s cozy home has been a cauldron of doom for visitors this season. Especially in these playoffs. While home-court advantage might be subsiding elsewhere, in Oklahoma City it\u2019s still very much a thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously have the best fans in the world, so that helps,\u201d said Jalen Williams, prompting a chorus of barks, after the Thunder won the West<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Thunder went 35-6 at home in the regular season. OKC is 8-1 at home in the playoffs \u2014\u00a0compared to 4-3 on the road \u2014\u00a0with the only home loss coming on Aaron Gordon\u2019s 3-pointer in Game 1 of the Denver series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seven times the Thunder has lost at home in a season that started seven months ago. That home-court advantage is just another reason why the Thunder will enter the Finals as the prohibitive favorite over either the Pacers or Knicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pre-order book on Thunder’s journey to NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

More: OKC Thunder might be ‘idiots’ but strength is their youth entering 2025 NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s net rating in nine playoff home games is 24.7 \u2014\u00a0meaning OKC has outscored opponents by 24.7 points per 100 possessions. In seven playoff road games, the Thunder has a -6.2 net rating. That 30.9-point difference between the Thunder\u2019s postseason home and road net ratings is the largest of any of the 16 playoff teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pacers have been almost as good on the road (+2.4 net rating) as they\u2019ve been at home (+4.1) in these playoffs. The Knicks have a 3.5 net rating at home and a -2.9 net rating on the road \u2014\u00a0a 6.4 points-per-100 possessions home\/road difference that doesn\u2019t even come close to the Thunder\u2019s polar splits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Thunder plays faster at home, shoots better at home and defends better<\/a> at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OKC Thunder stats for home\/road splits<\/p>\n

Thunder home offensive rating: 121.8 points per 100 possessions\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thunder away offensive rating: 108.2 points per 100 possessions\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thunder home defensive rating: 97.2 points allowed per 100 possessions\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thunder away defensive rating: 114.4 points allowed per 100 possessions\u00a0<\/p>\n

OKC\u2019s home\/road 3-point shooting splits are especially severe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Thunder has shot 36.8% from three in home playoff games. On the road? A ghastly 29.6%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More: Former OKC Thunder star Kendrick Perkins says SGA will be best player in franchise history<\/a><\/p>\n

Isaiah Joe: 12-of-25 (48%) home\/6-of-22 (27%) road\u00a0Lu Dort: 24-of-66 (36%) home\/7-of-36 (19%) road\u00a0Aaron Wiggins: 10-of-26 (39%) home\/5-of-21 (24%) roadAlex Caruso: 16-of-35 (46%) home\/11-of-30 (37%) road\u00a0Chet Holmgren: 13-of-34 (38%) home\/11-of-38 (29%) road\u00a0Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 14-of-42 (33%) home\/10-of-38 (26%) road<\/p>\n

Jalen Williams is the outlier. He\u2019s shooting threes at a 37% clip on the road compared to 27% at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 2-2-1-1-1 playoff format, having home court advantage basically comes down to the privilege of hosting a Game 7. In the NBA Finals, home teams are 15-4 (.789) in Game 7s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Game 1 carries more weight than you might think, though. Teams that win Game 1 of the NBA Finals at home go on to win the Finals 78% of the time (47-13).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRest up this week,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told fans, \u201cbecause we need you Thursday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More: How Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder ‘put it all together’ to punch ticket for NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at\u00a0jmussatto@oklahoman.com<\/a>. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a\u00a0digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Eastern Conference finals shift from New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden to Indiana\u2019s Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Paycom Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[2126,7,311,2127,1501,623,2125,113,126,947,1624,832,364,1777,304,70,85,6,1220,62,239,191,67,310,475,179,3966,3965,61,81,114,622,209,66,83,55,2128,312,833,303],"class_list":{"0":"post-68015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-enabled","12":"tag-finals","13":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","14":"tag-highlights","15":"tag-indiana","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-isaiah","18":"tag-isaiah-joe","19":"tag-jalen","20":"tag-jalen-williams","21":"tag-joe","22":"tag-knicks","23":"tag-national","24":"tag-national-sports","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-nba-finals","27":"tag-neutral","28":"tag-new","29":"tag-new-york-knicks","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-oklahoma","32":"tag-oklahoma-city","33":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","34":"tag-oklahomacity","35":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","36":"tag-overall","37":"tag-overall-neutral","38":"tag-pacers","39":"tag-shai","40":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","41":"tag-sports","42":"tag-sports-news","43":"tag-story","44":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","45":"tag-thunder","46":"tag-williams","47":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114602331587553604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}