{"id":694602,"date":"2026-04-02T20:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694602\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:53:18","slug":"cason-wallace-speaks-on-all-defensive-first-team-ahead-of-matchup-vs-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694602\/","title":{"rendered":"Cason Wallace speaks on All-Defensive First Team ahead of matchup vs. Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/oklahoma-city-thunder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> enter Thursday night&#8217;s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> with 60 wins, the most in the NBA this season.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the year, the defending champions have relied upon their defense, leading the league in defensive rating (106.3).<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder also rank fourth in steals per game (9.6), with excellent perimeter defenders like Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Lu Dort and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>Wallace has been especially impressive, averaging two steals per game, tied with Ausar Thompson and Tyrese Maxey for the league lead.<\/p>\n<p>Having played the most games of the trio, Wallace leads the league with 144 steals.<\/p>\n<p>Given the strength of his campaign, many expect the third-year forward to earn First Team All-Defense honors.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of Thursday&#8217;s game, Wallace <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Justintohoops\/status\/2039737959973290429\" rel=\"nofollow\">spoke<\/a> to the media about that possibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would mean a lot. It\u2019s nothing that you chase. But with putting together good games defensively, it would be nice to have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With six games remaining, Oklahoma City will continue to rely upon their defense to hold off the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/san-antonio-spurs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio trails the Thunder by two games, having won 10 in a row.<\/p>\n<p>Following Thursday&#8217;s game, the Thunder will finish the regular season with games against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/utah-jazz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jazz<\/a>, Lakers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/los-angeles-clippers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clippers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/denver-nuggets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nuggets<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/phoenix-suns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Suns<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio&#8217;s schedule is a bit more favorable with games against the Clippers, Nuggets, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/philadelphia-76ers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">76ers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/portland-trail-blazers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trail Blazers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/dallas-mavericks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, regardless of seeding, Oklahoma City will be regarded as one of the favorites when the postseason begins.<\/p>\n<p>More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder enter Thursday night&#8217;s game against the Los Angeles Lakers with 60 wins, the most&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-694602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma","11":"tag-oklahoma-city","12":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","13":"tag-oklahomacity","14":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","15":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116337102435673573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694602","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=694602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}