The regular season is winding down for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and with just five games remaining, the focus is shifting toward the playoffs, but not before a few important games remain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, this season went by really fast,\u201d Jalen Williams said. \u201cI think everybody\u2019s excited for the playoffs, but we\u2019ve got to get through these next couple games first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City (61-16) enters Sunday\u2019s matchup against Utah riding a four-game winning streak and having won 16 of its last 17 games. The Thunder also have a chance to win their 12th straight home game at Paycom Center.<\/p>\n
Utah (21-57) arrives on an eight-game losing streak and has struggled down the stretch, going 3-19 since the All-Star break. Despite the record, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault cautioned against overlooking a young Jazz team playing with confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a looseness to the way those teams play,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cThey play with a lot of confidence, no fear, and a lot of motivation. Cody\u2019s playing great\u2026 Bailey\u2019s a really good young player.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jazz are expected to feature two key young players, including rookie Ace Bailey and Thunder forward Jalen Williams\u2019 younger brother, Cody Williams.<\/p>\n
The Thunder have dominated the season series overall, though Utah pushed Oklahoma City to overtime in their last meeting Jan. 7 at Paycom Center before the Thunder escaped with a 129-125 win. Oklahoma City also recorded two blowout victories in Salt Lake City earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s game also carries added significance in the Western Conference race. The Denver Nuggets defeated San Antonio 136-134 in overtime Saturday, snapping the Spurs\u2019 11-game winning streak and giving Oklahoma City a 2.5-game lead for the No. 1 seed in the West.<\/p>\n
After Sunday\u2019s game, the Thunder head back on the road for three key matchups against the Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets before closing the regular season.<\/p>\n
With the playoffs approaching quickly, Oklahoma City is focused on finishing strong and securing home-court advantage throughout the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The regular season is winding down for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and with just five games remaining, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,423,6,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-698942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jazz","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-utah","12":"tag-utah-jazz","13":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116349858321734607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698942","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=698942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}