The Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s place in the postseason is set.<\/p>\n
The Thunder (64-17) will be the No. 1 overall seed when the playoffs open, their third consecutive season earning the top spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
The Phoenix Suns (44-37) will be headed to the play-in tournament as the No. 7 seed, though their opponent remains to be set.<\/p>\n
Sunday, the Suns and Thunder meet in Oklahoma City in both teams\u2019 regular-season finale.<\/p>\n
For the Thunder, the game figures to be as much about looking to the future as anything else.<\/p>\n
After clinching the top spot in the West with Wednesday\u2019s win over the Clippers, Oklahoma City sat four starters and several other rotational players in Friday\u2019s 20-point loss in Denver that snapped the Thunder\u2019s seven-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the plan for Sunday\u2019s game, with nearly a week before the playoff opener, will be similar to the loss to the Nuggets.<\/p>\n
Daigneault said he was happy with the way the regulars \u2014 players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein \u2014 supported the reserves who played significantly more minutes Friday than they had for much of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team\u2019s got great connection,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cI think they\u2019ve got a great understanding that a lot of these guys do the same for them when they\u2019re playing 38 minutes and so they reciprocate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daigneault said there was value in these games, even for the regular starters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re listening,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cThey\u2019re paying attention. They\u2019re saying the right things. It helps create an environment around the guys that are playing that allows them to play as well as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reserve success includes players like Nikola Topic, who played 39 minutes in Friday\u2019s loss \u2014 more than twice as many as he had in any of his first eight NBA games after missing much of the season while undergoing testicular cancer treatment and then missed another stretch as he worked his way back through the G League.<\/p>\n
Topic was 6-for-12 shooting with 14 points and 11 assists \u2014 but also eight turnovers \u2014 in the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will only get better and it did get better this game,\u201d Topic said after Friday\u2019s game. \u201cI think it\u2019ll also be better tomorrow, the next game and next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phoenix will take on either the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers in Tuesday\u2019s matchup between the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds for the seventh seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
Portland can wrap up the No. 8 seed with a win over Sacramento or a Clippers loss to Golden State. Los Angeles would need a win over the Warriors and a Blazers loss to the Kings to finish in the eighth spot.<\/p>\n
For Phoenix, keeping a sense of rhythm is more important, though the Suns will be without Grayson Allen on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Allen sustained a left hamstring injury in Friday\u2019s 101-73 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
The Suns rested Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Jordan Goodwin and Haywood Highsmith in Friday\u2019s loss, but were hoping to get Allen and others some additional time.<\/p>\n
After Allen\u2019s injury, Suns coach Jordan Ott sat Collin Gillespie for the entire second half.<\/p>\n
It might also make Ott less likely to push his regulars much in Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan was always to try to find a little rhythm for these guys,\u201d Ott said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t want to see another injury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s place in the postseason is set. The Thunder (64-17) will be the No. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-708804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-phoenix","11":"tag-phoenix-suns","12":"tag-phoenixsuns","13":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116390685907216867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708804","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=708804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}