{"id":713773,"date":"2026-04-19T08:18:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713773\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:18:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:18:40","slug":"oklahoma-city-hosts-phoenix-to-start-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713773\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City hosts Phoenix to start playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Suns<\/a> (45-37, seventh in the Western Conference) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> (64-18, first in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City; Sunday, 3:30 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n

LINE: Thunder -14; over\/under is 215.5<\/p>\n

WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Thunder host first series matchup<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: The Oklahoma City Thunder host the Phoenix Suns to begin the Western Conference first round. Oklahoma City went 3-2 against Phoenix during the regular season. The Suns won the last regular season matchup 135-103 on Monday led by 27 points from Jamaree Bouyea<\/a>, while Branden Carlson<\/a> scored 26 points for the Thunder.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are 41-11 against Western Conference opponents. Oklahoma City is the leader in the Western Conference in team defense, allowing 107.9 points while holding opponents to 43.7% shooting.<\/p>\n

The Suns are 29-23 against Western Conference opponents. Phoenix is 19-29 against opponents over .500.<\/p>\n

The 119.0 points per game the Thunder score are 7.9 more points than the Suns allow (111.1). The Suns are shooting 45.5% from the field, 1.8% higher than the 43.7% the Thunder’s opponents have shot this season.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> is scoring 31.1 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists for the Thunder. Chet Holmgren<\/a> is averaging 11.2 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 59.4% over the past 10 games.<\/p>\n

Royce O’Neale is scoring 9.8 points per game and averaging 4.8 rebounds for the Suns. Devin Booker<\/a> is averaging 23.8 points and 2.8 rebounds over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Thunder: 7-3, averaging 121.1 points, 44.2 rebounds, 27.2 assists, 9.9 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 49.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 110.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

Suns: 5-5, averaging 115.1 points, 44.2 rebounds, 24.0 assists, 7.8 steals and 5.5 blocks per game while shooting 46.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 112.1 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Thunder: Thomas Sorber<\/a>: out for season (knee).<\/p>\n

Suns: Mark Williams: day to day (foot), Grayson Allen: day to day (hamstring).<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns (45-37, seventh in the Western Conference) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (64-18, first in the Western Conference)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,5579,366,2292,78812,26456,1407,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,472,209,954,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-713773","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-branden-carlson","10":"tag-chet-holmgren","11":"tag-devin-booker","12":"tag-event_preview","13":"tag-jamaree-bouyea","14":"tag-national-basketball-association","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-oklahoma","17":"tag-oklahoma-city","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","19":"tag-oklahomacity","20":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","21":"tag-phoenix-suns","22":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","23":"tag-thomas-sorber","24":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116430392760899166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713773","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=713773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}